


You Again

by Joyva



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Prostitution, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Comfort/Angst, Cute, Developing Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Protective Lance (Voltron), Rape/Non-con - Freeform, Road Trips, Slow Burn, Time Travel, not really - Freeform, sex trafficking.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2019-06-22 09:11:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 44,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15578553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joyva/pseuds/Joyva
Summary: We’ll never be like that,The thought came as a bitter whisper as he looked to the side where the red paladin was, arms crossed against his chest as time around them moved. Lance narrowed his eyes, trying to understand why his other self was so close to Keith. It couldn’t be the hair, that mullet was too ludicrous for that. Couldn’t be the eyes, since they were very tempestuous all the time. Personality shouldn’t be related either, since Keith only had two: Annoyed and Indifferent.(aka where Lance was ready to see his other lives in divergent universes to help with Voltron's bond, but he wasn't ready to have Keith be with him in all of them.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is my first story published.  
> Sorry for any mistakes, English isn't my first language hehe  
> Each chapter will be in a different universe, and any warnings that apply, I'll let you guys know before the chapter. You don't really need to read every single chapter to understand since everything will be explained at the end. Keep in mind that any chapter can have violent scenes and maybe smut.  
> Last thing you need to know is that in this story Keith is still shorter than Lance, and that he's my princess and that I love him. Well, I think that's all.

“Are you sure about that?”

Lance asked one more time, looking at the others while they walked through the castle’s hallway.

“Allura said that this is the only way the Basian’s will trust us,” Shiro replied one more time.

“I get that, I just don’t understand why they have to get inside our minds to accept the alliance. I mean, we’re Voltron’s Paladins! That should count for something,” Lance continued, sincerely.

Pidge snorted, “Your mind must be so full of shit that you’re scared of sharing it with others.”

“Hey!”

“Stop fighting, you two,” came Shiro’s father’s voice, interrupting them. “We’re here.”

Leaning his hand against the panel, Shiro opened the door with a woosh, revealing a circular room that Lance had never seen before. He made a note internally to check it out later for possible places to hide after pissing off Pidge.

Shiro was the first one to go in, followed by a sullen Keith, and Pidge. Lance stayed put by the door, his eyes sliding to some Basian’s that walked around, connecting wires to a computer – which Pidge ran to, trying to figure out what type of engineering they used. Some Basian’s proportionally arranged five mattresses, each representing a color of the Paladins. Some wires were coming out of them towards a tiny purple rock on a metal circle.

The princess was excitedly talking to the leader of the Basian’s.

A heavy, comforting hand fell on Lance’s shoulder, catching his attention. He looked up at Hunk, who was watching him a little worried.

“Is everything okay, Lance?”

“Yeah,” a wicked smile grew on his thin lips. “Come on, let’s see what this beauty does!”

Allura looked at the Paladins in the room and smiled, excitement spewing out of her body in waves.

“Paladins, I hope you’re excited to enter the world of the mind. I know this rock helps a lot in the union of those who are destined.”  
“Hmm… destined to what?” Lance raised an eyebrow.

“No offense, princess, but I don’t see much in it,” Hunk’s voice sounded hesitant.

A nasal, unbalanced laugh came from the Basian’s leader, as if the yellow paladin had made some joke in his language. Lance couldn’t help comparing that laugh to the one killers let out before killing their victims in horror films.

“This rock is called Mamihlapinatapei, it searches people’s mind and soul, connecting them to their insides and allowing them to come together with those who they have a deep connection with.”

“Deep connection… like soulmates?” Pidge straightened his glasses, an analytical look emerging from his brown eyes.

The Basians’ leader frowned, somewhat confused. She then turned to Allura.

“What’s that?” The princess vaguely waved her hand.

“An Earth thing,” The leader nodded as if that answer was enough.

“Must be some type of bond, right?” Pidge continued.

“Yes, a soul bond that goes beyond all types of temporal barriers. With this rock, you’ll be able to see your lives in other realities!”

“Is that possible?” Hunk whispered to Lance, who only shrugged.

“It is possible, and with this experience you’ll be able to form a bond even stronger than the old Paladins!” Coran exclaimed with an evil gleam in his eyes.

“Why don’t I like the sound of that?” Hunk murmured.

“Let’s just do it already,” Keith’s voice came from the other side of the room. “The sooner we do this, the faster we’ll defea Zarkon.”

“In a hurry, aren’t we?” Lance scoffed, crossing his arms on his chest and glaring at the boy.

Keith crossed his arms too, as if that created an invisible barrier between them.

“Well, at least I’m ready for it.”

Lance let out a hybrid sound between choking and gasping, offended, “I’m very much ready, Mullet! I won’t let you beat me!”

“What’s that?” Keith mumbled, but Lance didn’t pay attention to him, walking directly towards the colorful mattresses and sitting comfortably in the one with his lion’s heart. Clapping his hands together and crossing his legs, he excitedly looked at the Basian’s.

“So?”

“Well, as the blue Paladin is already in his spot, I ask that you please do the same. Lie down comfortably so your body doesn’t feel irritated,” one of the Basian scientists instructed. As soon as they were all comfortable in their designed spots, some other Basians began to connect white wires to their temples. “These wires are connected to the rock, they’ll allow you to travel through your alternate realities without losing your way.”

“That’s concerning,” Hunk said, moving a little next to Lance.

“It’ll be alright,” reassured Shiro, somewhere to his right. Lance felt a bit jealous for not having so much trust as his leader, instead feeling his stomach turn in an awful way.

Swallowing nervously, Lance nodded and looked away, turning his head to the left to see who was beside him. Annoyance bubbled in his chest as he saw Keith’s familiar black hair, dark strands spreading across the red mattress making them look more ethereal than normal.

Without noticing, Lance let his eyes follow the thin line of his jaw to his slightly plump, red lips (Lance wondered if they were truly that way or if Keith had some sort of lipstick in space), his nose was small and a bit curved at the tip, where it was slightly reddened as if he had itched it a little. His cheeks were pale and free of any spots he could use to make fun of him… Lance wondered how that pale skin would look after a bit of sun.

Then, those same pale cheeks slowly reddened, making Lance blink, his alarmed blue eyes shifting upward, directly to eyes of a deep, questioning indigo. Blinking once again, Lance noticed he had been staring at Keith – his rival, arch-nemesis – the whole time, and what’s worse… _you’re still staring, Lance! Look away now!_

With his face burning up, Lance looked up at the ceiling and uncomfortably whistled to himself. A bluish light spread through the room as the machine connected to the rock hummed lowly. A sigh next to him brought his attention to Keith again, the light reflected on his light skin, and his _stupid_ thick, dark eyebrows were furrowed, strands of his dark hair fell on his eyes. He looked a bit worried.

 

“Scared, Mullet?” Lance sneered, bringing the other’s attention the him. Keith raised a _stupid_ eyebrow at him, his once distant eyes now challenging.

“Are you, Lance?” He mocked with an idle smile.

“All set, Voltron’s Paladins!” The leader cried out, stopping Lance from retorting. “The countdown will begin. An important warning: you won’t be able to interfere with the alternate realities, you’ll only be able to watch it. In case you try to change anything, it won’t work.”

“I hope this helps when you form Voltron,” Allura’s voice came from underneath.

“I’m not ready for that yet. Can’t we leave this to another day? What about making a delicious snack with some new ingredients I bought in the last planet we visited?” Hunk said.

“Hunk, my friend, relax. This will be as easy as shooting with your eyes closed at the training room,” Lance smiled at the big man and winked.

“I don’t think you’ve reached that level yet, Lance,” Pidge sneered.

“Pidge, you’re a really mean girl. I just want our big guy over here to enjoy our other lives.”

“I’m sure you’ll still be a jerk.”

“Geez, Pidgeon, thank you so much for the encouragement, you’re doing great as a friend.”

There was a small noise, as if Pidge was shrugging, “It’s my job.”

“Right, right,” Coran intervened, “concentrate. We’ll start now, enjoy the journey!”

With that, the light intensified. Lance got comfortable and turned to look at the ceiling, watching the light form abstract shapes above his head. He slowly blinked, feeling a slightly pull where the wires were connected and the murmuring of a countdown. A movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention and turned to look at Keith again.

 

_5_

Keith turned to face him too, blinking slowly, his long lashes brushing his cheeks.

_4_

The light was reflected in his dark eyes, making them brighter than they really were.

_3_

Lance let out a heavy sigh, emptying his lungs, his mind unexpectedly completely silent, not even a thread of thought ran through it.

_2_

Keith opened his lips, a question spilling out of them. A low and simple, _“Lance?”_

_1_

The light seeped through his eyes making them sore, however, he kept staring at the red paladin like some sort of test, challenging him to see how long he could keep his _stupid_ eyes open.

Keith was the first one to close his eyes and, before Lance could feel victorious, the white light became unbearable enough that he had to close his as well. He fell deeply into the darkness.


	2. Canon Divergence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, here's another chapter. I know those of you who've watched the new season are probably upset, but don't get discouraged cause we still got the last one to get to. I won't say much cause I'm not sure everyone has watched it yet and I don't wanna spoil anything. So, that's it. Enjoy.

 

**** His ears rang steadily, his mouth felt quite dry, and Lance wondered if the trip had any kind of side effect or even worse, some permanent effect. Feeling a cool breeze caressing his face, Lance opened his eyes and couldn’t stop his lips from opening in admiration.

 

A large green field stretched ahead of him, with some trees scattered in a disorganized fashion before forming a forest; the leaves were a half-orange tone that reminded Lance of autumn in his country, he could almost smell the scent of the plants his mother lovingly cared for, the sound of the birds singing as they flew, the way the light seeped through the branches, his cousins’ laughter and his brothers running through the house… 

 

“Dude…” Hunk’s whispering voice spoke beside him, reminding him that he wasn’t alone. Lance blinked, a little lost, and looked at the rest of the group, seeing the same kind of fascination stamped on their faces.

 

"I could confuse this place with Earth," Pidge agrees without blinking.

 

Lance’s blue eyes wandered around the place once more, seeing small hills covered with vegetation not far from where they were. His gaze shifted upward, where pink clouds floated back and forth mingling with the strange blue of the sky, make it purplish, almost hiding the three moons that were there.  _ No _ , Lance thought,  _ it’s nothing like Earth _ .

 

“Looks like the trip went well,” Shiro commented, crouching down to pick up a small lilac flower with his metal arm, surprised when the little plant didn’t fall from of his hands.

 

Lance raised an eyebrow.

 

“I thought we were like ghosts,” he complained, looking at the flower as if it had personally offended him in a terrible way.

 

“Maybe we can touch small things,” Keith murmured, with his arms crossed softly on his chest, his expression frowning and thoughtful; Lance had a huge urge to hit him.

 

Suddenly, a flash of light exploded in the sky, illuminating the whole field for a split second before suddenly disappearing, followed by a loud crash that caused the whole group to jump and run to catch their bayards —  months of fighting made it clear that loud noises were not a good sign — only to realize that their weapons hadn’t come along on this trip. A wormhole opened in the sky and through it the red lion appeared, swirling around itself as it fell with surprising rapidity.

 

The wormhole closed as the lion hovered above their heads and crashed hard against the ground, dragging everything along with it before halting meters ahead, its muzzle buried in the earth and smoke coming out all over its great structure; you could see that the lion had been hit several times — if the blackened marks explained anything.

 

For a few seconds everything was still. The noise of the lion clashing to the ground continued to echo in Lance’s mind like a macabre symphony, not even his super hyperactive mind worked, and he just knew that the others must be feeling the same.

 

However, before they could assume the worst, the sound of something hitting metal and the screech of its opening echoed. Soon, a very familiar dark head of hair came out of the breach, followed by a thin body clad in red armor. That reality’s Keith rolled from the lion’s head towards the ground, falling with a pained exclamation.

 

“Shit,” Keith rose slowly, his armor charred. Blood stained its most sensitive part on his right leg —  nothing serious — his hair was blowing all over the place, and there were only a few scratches on his left cheek. For someone who fell from the sky at an alarming speed, he looked very well.

 

“Red?” The boy tried, touching his lion. No reply. “Great.”

 

Limping a little as he walked away from the lion, Keith lifted his head to look up at the sky, no sign of the wormhole, after all the Galera’s fleet’s shots and the malfunction at the time of the wormhole’s opening, he sincerely hoped that the others were at least alright...

 

Another great crash echoed, interrupting Keith’s first pessimistic thoughts, making him look up just in time to catch the blue lion passing through the wormhole, with smoke emerging from its flanks, creating a trail of smoke across the sky until it disappears between some trees.

 

“I think that's Lance,” Pidge said. The ground below them shuddered a bit, signaling that the other lion also fell brutally somewhere in the trees.

 

“Lance!” Keith shouted before running, following the trail of smoke, as his figure disappeared through the trees. Lance turned to the others, his finger pointing in the direction the boy had disappeared.

 

“Do we have to follow him?”

 

Impulsive as ever, Lance wasn’t surprised when their Keith followed the other, causing the rest of the group to follow him as well. Lance rolled his eyes.

 

“Of course, why not follow yourself on an alien planet?”

 

* * *

 

 

“Lance!”

 

Keith ran towards the blue lion that had fallen into a great river, most of his huge robot body swallowed by the water because the ground had sunk under his weight, stranding him in the middle of the river. If the ground beneath the water was this fragile, the lion could be submerged in a few hours. Trying to keep his worries away, Keith pushed his way through the cold water that reached halfway down his thighs, he tried to ignore how the mud tried to catch his feet and kept advancing until he reached the back paw and leaned in to raise himself up.

 

Slipping a few times, the boy climbed to the back of Blue’s big head, he hadn’t even touched the metal before a gap opened and revealed a Lance without a helmet and a small bruise on his forehead. Lance grinned at him as he raised his hand to scratch the back of his neck.

 

“Hey Mullet, how’s it going?”

 

Keith’s face flushed, his cheeks swollen and his whole body tensed, his arms parallel to his body and his hands closed.

 

“You're an idiot, Lance!” He exclaimed angrily. Lance left Blue, his armor was a little dirty, but he didn’t look hurt anywhere else, however Keith didn’t seem to care. He walked until he was facing the taller boy and punched him in the arm.

 

“Hey!” The other boy squealed.

 

“I knew you were an idiot, but that was too much, you shouldn’t have done that!”

 

“Go easy with the hands!" Lance complained as Keith’s — not really hard — punches hit his chest. “My body still hurts!”

 

“Go fuck yourself!”

 

“Only if you go with me.”

 

Keith grabbed the armor’s breastplate and pulled him down hard, causing Lance to squirm slightly.

 

“Didn’t think you’d want to now but…” Lance’s joke died in his throat at the sight of Keith’s gaze, concern filled the boy’s violet eyes in a way that made the blue paladin feel a bit guilty.

 

“You could’ve died, Lance.” Keith’s voice cracked a little, his face once so expressionless, now red with fatigue. He was breathing hard and his hands were shaking— Lance was sure that Keith hadn’t noticed that last part.

 

“I’m fine,” The blue paladin assured. His hands lifted until they rested on the other’s arms, his body stepping closer to the shorter boy. Keith’s head lowered to almost rest on Lance’s collarbone, hiding his expression from the other. “I’m fine, Keith.”

 

Watching from the edge of the river, Lance felt as if he was missing something important because the way  _ that  _ Lance acted in front of  _ that  _ Keith didn’t match the way he acted with Keith of his reality; fights, rivalry and disagreements were part of his day-to-day life— something he knew was his fault, not that he was going to say it aloud to the others— but there, watching as the other Lance comforted the red paladin, held his arms carefully as he spoke in a calm voice that it was alright, he didn’t know what to think… Since when had he stopped mocking the socially inept I-Don’t-Like-Talking Kogane to  _ comfort  _ Kogane?

 

“Is it just me, or do you guys also think that Keith and Lance look like friends in this life?” Hunk asked without taking his eyes off of the river. Pidge straightened their glasses critically.

 

“Looks like this Lance doesn’t have anything up his ass like ours."

 

“I don’t have anything up my ass, thank you very much,” Lance glared at the green paladin, his arms moving nervously in the air. “It’s Keith who’s always pissing me off!”

 

The boy he mentioned glared at him, his face contorting in annoyance.

 

“What? I don’t even do anything!” He said in exasperation. Lance pointed at his face.

 

“Exactly! Always so quiet and angry, like you woke up with something sour in your mouth.”

 

Keith crossed his arms and looked away.

 

“Maybe it’s because I know when I wake up, I’m going to see your ugly face.”

 

“Excuse me? My face is wonderful, I spend a lot of time taking care of my skin so it’s always flawless…”

 

“I’m sure we all know that, Lance,” Pidge interrupted dryly. “You say that every single day. It’s boring.”

 

“Wait, Keith!” A cry from the lake echoed, interrupting their argument. They watched as Keith came back from the river, stripping off parts of his armor, wearing only the dark clothes underneath. Lance followed behind him. “I don’t think we should leave our lions,” he said as he took off his armor.

 

“I don’t like that either,” the younger boy said, looking at the other. A line of apprehension was stamped on his features. “But we have to find somewhere to stay, soon it will be dark and both Red and Blue can’t protect us being broken.”

 

“So, what's your plan?” Lance sat down heavily on the ground as he left the river, plucking the breastplate from his armor unceremoniously and tossing it aside. He ruffled his hair and looked at the boy standing beside him.

 

“Red must have something warm to help us make it through the night… but we’re going to have to hunt to eat, get a safe place to sleep, start a fire…”

 

“Got it, time to set up camp.” Clapping his hands on his knees and standing up with renewed energy, Lance threw an arm over Keith’s shoulders and pulled him closer, turning their bodies over until the mountains were in their line of sight. The Blue paladin pointed to the closest one. “That can be our home for a few hours.”

 

Keith sighed, his flowing as he blew the air out.

 

“With the way things were before we ended up here, I think it’s going to be more than just a few hours.”

  
  


* * *

 

 

Lance didn’t know exactly how the journey between realities worked, perhaps they would make him hungry due to the hours they would spend jumping from one life to another, or maybe they would go through all of this in just a few seconds— or maybe that was pushing it, so he went with a few minutes— the thing is, he  _ expected  _ something; at least a sign that his body was in need of food or too tired and asking for his wonderful bed, or maybe his legs begging to stop walking or sitting, but  _ no _ , he didn’t feel anything and they had been in that reality for hours now.

 

He saw when his other self found a not too deep cave hidden among the rocks of a not too high mountain, where the leaves served to cover its entrance; covered enough so that no animal or being could see them. He watched as the  _ other  _ Lance came back from the blue lion with a few pieces of clothing, some blankets, and something like a first aid kit. He watched silently when Keith came back from the forest with his arms full of branches and set up a fire in the back of the cave as the pink sky grew darker and darker, the fire creating sinister shapes on the sandy walls.

 

The two boys gathered around the flames, the night had already arrived and with it the cold, the thin blankets that Lance took from blue were around his shoulders, hands open toward the fire. Keith shifted uncomfortably on the hard floor, his cheeks and nose tips red from the cold. He pulled the blanket closer to his body, as if that would stop the chills that seeped into his body.

 

“You cold, Mullet?” Lance asked, making his indigo eyes focus on his. The Cuban boy stood up, his slender form casting shadows over the other’s face. Lance didn’t wait for him to answer as he sat down beside him and opened his arms. “Come here.”

 

Keith raised a questioning eyebrow, not looking surprised.

 

(“It seems like some things stay the same despite other lives,” Pidge commented to no one in particular.

 

“The difference is he’s flirting with  _ Keith _ ,” Hunk agreed in a low tone, “That in itself is something new.”)

 

Lance of that reality grimaced jokingly, his arms still open to the indifferent boy in front of him.

 

“Come on, I know you want a hug from Lancey here.”

 

“Don’t call yourself that,” Keith grumbled, but approached the other boy anyway. Lance seemed to light up before letting his long arms cover the other boy, letting him rest his head on his shoulder.

 

“You know, you’re kinda cool when you’re not trying to kill everyone,” he commented in a low tone. Keith huffed.

 

“I want to kill everyone all the time, Lance.”

 

“Hey, I was just trying not to be so accusatory. We are a team now, blue and red, water and fire, air and flame, the sane one and the…”

 

“I think I get it, Lance,” Keith cut him off. Although his tone was a bit harsh, his expression was amused. Lance lowered his head to look at the red paladin, his smile curving into something playful.

 

“You spend a lot of time with Pidgeon,” Keith shrugged, not refuting that statement as it was totally true. His forefinger made confusing shapes on the floor.

 

“They’re cool,” he said, but his voice died out. Keith took a deep breath before raising his head a little to look at Lance. “Do you think that others are okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Lance answered without hesitation.

 

“But we were beaten up hard, Lance.”

 

“I know, but I believe they’re fine and will come looking for us.”

 

Keith stepped away from Lance, making the blanket slip off one of his shoulders and huddle around his waist, his eyes darker than usual from the shadows the flames cast. His gaze fixed on Lance.

 

“What if they don’t find us?”

 

“They will.”

 

“What if they  _ don’t _ , Lance?”

 

Lance gripped the Red Paladin’s shoulders with determination and stared at him, his expression more serious than anyone had ever seen before.

 

“They  _ will  _ find us, Keith,” he said in a tone that left no room for arguments. Keith closed his eyes and shook his head, his hand gripping the blanket tightly. His fingers on Keith’s shoulders began to massage tense muscles, pulling him close until his head rested on top of his shoulder.

 

“We have to think about what we’re going to do until then,” Keith replied quietly. Lance wrapped his arm around Keith’s shoulders again and rested his back against the hard wall of the cave.

 

“For now, we have to sleep.”

 

“Since when are you the sane one, Lance?" Keith sneered. Lance tightened his arm around the boy, making him curse.

 

“I’ve always been. Now, sleep.” Keith grunted before closing his eyes and sighing, bringing his face a little closer to Lance’s neck, trying to catch some of the warmth emanating from him. His hands still clutching at the blankets now around them both. It wasn’t long before his breathing became more regular, showing that the red paladin had really slept.

 

Lance snorted amusedly, before leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes, soon, he too was asleep, the weariness of the day finally getting to him. The crackling of the fire was the only noise left in the cave.

 

* * *

 

 

“Well…  _ that  _ was shocking,” Pidge said quietly, although they knew the other boys wouldn’t be able to hear it.

 

Hunk nodded. “I don’t know if I'm shocked cause they're  _ cuddling  _ or cause Lance is being  _ serious  _ for once.”

 

“Looks like you guys get on very well here,” Shiro agreed. Lance opened his mouth to refute when the air around them seemed to come undone, the images gathering together and creating distorted colors and shapes as they stretched.

 

“Hmm, what’s going on?” Lance asked a little frightened, looking back and forth as everything around him seemed to spin. It reminded him of a blender.

 

“It seems to be the passage of time,” Pidge replied in awe. And they were right. They watched in amazement as the days in that reality seemed to pass by, showing how Lance and Keith survived each day, fishing in the river, checking Red and Blue to see if there was any progress just to return without answers, sleeping together when night came, hunting for food and fruit and keeping away from that planet’s natives, talking about when the castle would come to find them… Until time suddenly stopped, making Lance feel a little dizzy with the abrupt stop.

 

“I think I’m going to throw up,” Hunk commented, his face green, his hands tightly covering his mouth as his big body rocked back and forth. Lance also felt sick.

 

“I guess it’s just going to show us some parts,” Keith said, looking back and forth. “Something like degree of importance.”

 

Pidge nodded, straightening their glasses. “I think so too, something that may help us form Voltron more efficiently.”

 

Lance quietly agreed. That has got to be it, to show them how good they’d be if they were together. Allura said it herself that, once they were familiar with each other, they could develop powers that the lions still held secret— something he was very anxious to know. Imagine having powers and being able to end the Galras with only a fist?

 

“I think I found more of those fruits, Keith!” Other Lance’s voice came from the trees, his lively tone frightening some of the birds resting there. His slender figure wasn’t seen because of the large leaves. Keith of that reality jumped out of one of the trees, his dark hair clinging to the top of his head slovenly, a shirt too wide hanging off his body— and Lance noticed that that shirt was one of those that was lying in his room in the castle— he wore the same black pants as always.

 

The dark-haired boy pushed the blankets away so he could see his teammate better. The sole of his boots making noise as he stepped on the dead leaves lying on the ground.

 

“We’ll have a feast tonight, full of yellow and red fruits, weird plants and some of those strange little gummies we decided to call beans," Lance continued.

 

“ _ You _ decided to call them that.” Keith pointed out, looking at the other boy with amusement. “I’m sure Pidge would come up with a better name than that.”

 

“Sure sure, whatever you say,” Lance said, shaking his hand at the other boy with disinterest, without taking his attention away from the small round fruits that rested on an old cloth they wore as a purse.

 

Keith leaned against the trunk of a tree, fingers playing with the hem of his shirt. He bit his lower lip before looking back at Lance.

 

“Do you remember when we were in the common room playing cards… and you and Pidge started to comment on my possible relationships?”

 

Lance’s eyes found Keith when he heard this. A smile slowly sprouting on his lips and interest rising in those blue irises.

 

“Will you tell me how many?”

 

Keith shrugged contemptuously, but Lance could see his body tense up, eyes looking anywhere but at him, pale fingers still playing with the hem of Lance’s shirt.

 

“And if I had answered that I…”

 

A loud, distressed cry echoed through the forest, causing Keith to shut up as Lance jumped to his feet— The Voltron team watching also tensed up, they looked at each other nervously until more screams joined the first one. Lance felt his heart race.  _ Calls for help. _

 

That reality’s Keith and Lance took their bayards and ran as fast as they could toward the noise. The sound of a gun froze them for a few seconds before they forced their legs to go faster, into the forest and up a small hill they had found a few days ago.

 

Suddenly, Keith grasped Lance’s wrist and pulled him down until their bodies were hidden by the vegetation. The Blue paladin made a sound as his body hit a fallen log. He turned furiously to the other boy.

 

“Keith, what the hell?”

 

“Shh… They’ll hear you.” He pointed to the spot below them causing Lance to shut up. There were a large number of aliens huddled together as a strange alien race held laser guns, holding the group captive while some of them threw things to the ground and took what they found interesting.

 

Lance couldn’t help but notice that some of the aliens were rudely separated from the family’s arms and thrown into a separate group. All terrified.

 

“Looters. Seems they exist everywhere,” Keith commented somberly.

 

“We have to help them,” Lance answered, rising from the floor, his face a full of aggression. Keith grabbed his arm roughly.

 

“We can not. How are we going to deal with all of them?” Keith says fiercely, looking at the blue paladin as if he were crazy.

 

“We can’t let them do this to them, Keith.”

 

“And what do you expect, hm? That we’ll go there, shooting like crazy, thinking it’ll make them run away?” Keith said sarcastically. Lance looked directly at the younger boy. Keith stared at him intently, “You’re crazy.”

 

“At least for the children to run away,” Lance pleaded. Keith closed his eyes and sighed.

 

“We’re dead,” the dark-haired boy nodded resignedly.

 

(“They won’t do that,” Pidge whispered incredulously.

 

“Oh, it looks like they will,” Hunk confirmed.)

 

Less than a second later, Lance was lifting the bayard above his head and firing two shots into the air to draw attention to them. Keith didn’t wait for the looters to spot the intruders before he attacked, cutting off the leg of two of those who took care of the large group and breaking a third, cutting off his arm and knocking him to the ground.

 

“Get him!” Came a sharp cry from the other side, but Keith paid no mind and continued to attack because he knew that Lance had his back. And he did. Lance shot three who tried to reach Keith, hitting one in the eye when he fired at the red paladin.

 

“Run away with the children!” Lance shouted to the already-freed natives, jumping on a fallen log and firing into the chest of a looter who tried to attack him. “Get them out of here!”

 

After that, everything moved very fast, shots fired all over the place until more looters arrived to bring the paladins down with the few natives who couldn’t get away, leaving them on their knees and picking up their bayards. Lance looked down at Keith, his brown hair dragging on the dirty floor as his head was forced to the ground.

 

“At least some of them escaped,” he whispered. Keith shook his head with a soft snort.

 

One of the looters turned to them. He was big, Lance might say, had long, muscular arms, his head looked like a cabbage with four large eyes and a pouty mouth. A really weird being. He pointed at the two teenagers on the floor.

 

“I do not know who you are, but you seem to be worth a lot,” he commented in a high voice. Lance wanted to laugh. For a being who seemed so strong, his voice was so high. “I saw your guns, too… unique, aren’t they?" He sneered, his strange eyes going from Lance to Keith. He then approached the younger boy, touching his dark hair. Keith turned to him sharply, almost hitting him.

 

The alien— who Lance assumed to be the pack’s boss— just laughed.

 

“Well, I hope they enjoy the trip.” At that, those who held them down pulled them up quickly, forcing those bizarre eyes to face them. “And… don’t complain about the accommodations.”

 

* * *

 

 

The looter’s spaceship was large. Lance had to accept that fact as he and the other paladins silently walked through the great blue and cold corridors— not that he could feel it, but the bluish light made it seem like it— watching his other self rudely be escorted along with Keith and other natives along the way among the many other cells they had there. All full of people.

 

Lance felt Hunk shiver by his side as he saw the horrified look in some of their expressions.

 

“This is horrible.”

 

“Traffic of natives,” Keith murmured. The blue paladino noticed the way the shorter boy tapped his forefinger nervously against his right leg, teeth biting into his lower lip, his eyes conveying a faintly contained fury. Lance knew that if he could, the red paladin would attack all guards on that spaceship.

 

The sound of metal being dragged on the dry ground echoed down the hallway as the door to one of the cells was opened and the thieves threw the two paladins inside, Lance almost falling to the ground. The door closed with a thud.

 

“Enjoy your stay, you rats,” one of them mocked before turning his back and walking down the hallway with the others, his laughter echoing through the metal walls.

 

“Now we’re fucked,” Lance said after a few seconds of tense silence, the other aliens with whom they would share the cell remained silent. He looked at Keith, his eyes widening a little to see blood staining one of his arms. “Fuck, Keith, are you okay?”

 

The blue paladin rushed to the smaller boy, gripping his arm carefully to check the wound. Keith snorted at the other boy’s concern.

 

“It’s okay,” he said, pulling his arm back. “It’s just a scratch.”

 

“Sure, says the guy who doesn’t like to put ointment on bruises and hates getting into the healing pod cause he thinks it’s pointless.”

 

Keith shook his head. The wounded arm didn’t bother him.

 

“Doesn’t matter. We have to know where we’re going and if the lions are safe.”

 

“T-ka,” a different voice answered, drawing the boys’ attention to the corner of the cell. There, crouched against a dirty wall was a small alien with three arms, his eyes were completely green. No pupils. “We are going to the planet T-Ka. A great planet that serves as the center of goods exchange.”

 

“A great mercantile center,” agreed another prisoner, looking at the paladins almost shyly. “That’s where they sell…  _ things _ .”

 

“By things, you mean people!” Said one of them who looked like a lizard, his monstrous expression writhing in anger. “We will be sold!”

 

“Calm down, everybody,” Lance interjected, raising his arms to appease them, walking to stand between the two prisoners. “We need to know when we’re going to get there.”

 

“It’ll take days. Maybe months,” replied a girl with large arms and curly red hair, her big brown eyes looking at others with concern.

 

“That’s a long time,” Lance murmured to himself, scratching his chin absently. Keith touched his arm gently to get his attention, black hair falling on his cheeks.

 

“That may give us time to think about what to do.” Lance raised an eyebrow at him, a little surprised, Keith was usually the one who acted first and thought second. “It’s no use trying to run away while we’re here, we’ll get killed. The only way would be to wait for the spaceship to dock on that planet.”

 

“The little one is right,” a soft voice spoke. The two paladins looked as people made room for a lady to pass. She had short legs and white hair, her curved body leaning against an old staff. Her small eyes looked at the two humans analytically. “My name is Heylla, I’m from the planet Tlax.”

 

Keith and Lance nodded their heads in acknowledgment.

 

“I’m Lance and this is Keith,” the Cuban boy said, throwing his arm over the other’s shoulder. “We’re—”

 

“From Earth,” Keith interrupted quickly. Lance looked at him interrogatively, his thin eyebrow rising above his deep blue eyes, but Keith ignored him. “We were on a reconnaissance mission, but our spaceships were attacked and we fell on an unknown planet… then, we saw that some natives were being robbed and we tried to help.”

 

Mrs. Heylla looked at him contemplatively, her eyes showing something like sadness.

 

“I understand. We’ve been here awhile,” she pointed at the others. “But we’re not surprised to see more of you arriving.” She sighed, looking exhausted. “You must be tired, I suggest you get some sleep and wait until the food arrives—  _ if  _ they bring food. We should get to T-Ka in a few days’ time. Try not to die ‘till then.”

 

With that, the small crowd dispersed, each going to a corner. Lance let his arm drop from Keith’s shoulder until his hand reached the elbow and held gently, dragging the red paladin into an empty corner. He sat down, his back against the dirty wall and looked down at the other boy.

 

“Come here,” he said, opening his arms. “I need cuddles. Since Hunk isn’t here, you’ll be my bear of warmth.”

 

Keith huffed, tossing his hair out of his face with a little embarrassment, looking anywhere but the other boy. “That’s not even a thing.”

 

“Come on, Keith.  _ Keith _ , I want smooches!”

 

“Shut up Lance,” Keith snorted, throwing himself heavily onto the other boy to shut him up, butt falling with discomfort on the floor as he sat in front of the other. Lance didn’t wait a second before throwing his arms around him and pulling him back until his back touched his broad chest, head resting on the paladin’s shoulder. They moved until they were more comfortable.

 

“Like this,” Lance nodded, leaning his face against Keith’s black hair. He took a deep breath. “I think it’s going to take a little longer to find the others,” he said softly just for Keith to hear.

 

Keith shrugged and snuggled closer to Lance; his whole body losing the tension it accumulated during the day, “Yeah…”

They didn’t say anything else. Just stood there, clinging to each other on an alien spaceship, trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance shouldn’t have been surprised when everything around him began to dissolve into sounds and images like before, showing the passage of time. Good thing this time he and the others no longer felt nauseous as they saw everything spin like a ferris wheel, but okay— better to feel nothing than to feel like his brain was being shaken by an invisible hand. He even stopped feeling  _ very  _ uncomfortable as he saw that Lance and Keith really were close  _ friends  _ in that reality.

 

Although part of him still couldn’t accept it that easily, especially when he saw Keith press his body against Lance whenever they slept, never moving away from each other— this sort of  _ thing  _ did strange things to his chest, as if something was squeezing it until his heart stopped beating.

 

_ We’ll never be like that, _

 

The thought came as a bitter whisper as he looked to the side where the red paladin was, arms crossed against his chest as time around them moved. Lance narrowed his eyes, trying to understand why his other self was so close to Keith. It couldn’t be the hair, that mullet was too ludicrous for that. Couldn’t be the eyes, since they were very tempestuous all the time. Personality shouldn’t be related either, since Keith only had two: Annoyed and Indifferent.

 

Lance shook his head and looked away from the boy, irritation bubbling in his heart for having even thought about Keith and the nonexistent friendship. Instead, he locked everything related to that in a little box in the back of his mind he labeled  _ Things to Forget and Ignore Forever _ , and turned his attention to the world around him that was coming back to form.

 

* * *

 

 

Two weeks and three days. That’s how long the two paladins spent in the ship until they landed in the space port of T-Ka. The shackles scraped Lance’s skin as he and the other prisoners were escorted out of the ship to the sandy surface of the planet. He blinked a few times, trying to get accustomed to the brightness of the sun— days in the darkness left their mark— and looked back, where Keith followed silently, pale skin almost glowing with the strong light.

 

Sensing his gaze, the red paladin turned his face toward him and raised an eyebrow, violet eyes bright, inquisitive. Lance opened his mouth to speak— probably something stupid— when a jerk on his shoulder forced him to walk faster to where a large number of prisoners gathered in front of two rows, where some natives were separated from the others.

 

In spite of the bad events, Lance couldn’t help but admire the enormous alien diversity in that place, the amount was so great that he knew he wouldn’t be able to identify more than half; even if Allura had placed him to map the planets all those months ago.

 

The guard who escorted them pushed him into one of the queues while Keith was thrown into another, separating them by a few meters. Lance saw the worried look that Keith threw in his direction as the guards who watched people used small scanner machines, assessing something of the prisoners.

 

The blue paladin felt a little uneasy as he saw the scanner whistle at the alien in front of him, two of the looters watching them grabbed at his thin arms and dragged him roughly to another spot— this spot being a small path with glass walls which disappeared between dirty tents.

 

Affliction grew inside of Lance as he watched the guard turn to him, scanner right against his forehead. He blinked as a green light ran from his head to his feet, whatever they had seen seemed to be what they wanted, since they let him pass to the other side of the railing.

 

Lance brushed the hair off of his face as he turned toward Keith, watching as the big prisoner in front of the red paladin passed to the other side of the railing. The scanner was lifted over the shorter boy and Lance felt his heart stop beating as it whistled.

 

“No…” he murmured, his feet already trailing in that direction. Large alien arms surrounded Keith from behind. “ _No no no no_!”

 

Keith shouted something, but Lance could hear nothing but his own heartbeat and the sound of his footsteps on the sand. Someone tried to hold him down, but nothing kept him from running. Keith struggled, throwing punches and kicks in that impulsive way of his, but even that couldn’t calm Lance’s despair; Keith was being carried away from him.

 

“You son of a bitch, _let him go_!” Lance was about to jump over the railing and keep following when something heavy fell on him, hurling him to the ground. Something gripped his arms tightly, hurting his shoulder. There was sand in his mouth and it stung his face, but none of it was more important than the look Keith gave him as he was pulled into the glass hallway.  _ Panic _ .

 

Keith’s voice calling him was the last thing Lance heard before something hit his head and led him into the dark.

 

* * *

 

 

The Voltron team silently watched the whole scene unfolding; they watched as Lance was thrown to the ground as he screamed Spanish profanity to his captors, wide and angry blue eyes directed at those who took the red paladin away until he was hit hard on the head.

 

Shiro sucked in a breath before he turned his attention to his fellow paladins, all astonished in a different degree. Keith was the one who seemed to be more shocked, wide violet eyes and raised eyebrows almost disappearing into his dark bangs.

 

“That was chilling,” Pidge said. Hunk looked at them a little alarmed.

 

“What do you guys think will happen to Keith? Where did those guys take him? Oh my God, will he die? Will they send him to another planet so he and Lance won’t be able to find each other? What if—”

 

“Breathe, Hunk,” Lance interjected with a dismissive smile, eyes glancing at the red paladin. “I’m pretty sure he’s just gonna have to be an employee, y’know? Clean the floor and the toilet.”

 

“As if that didn’t suit you better, idiot,” Keith complained, violet eyes staring at the other paladin with fire.

 

“Not wanting to agree with you, but I’m good at any kind of work,” Lance boasted with a grin on his face.

 

“Unless that work involves being quiet,” Pidge said indifferently. “That’s very difficult for you.”

 

“Pidge, Pidge, you still don’t understand that my charm is in my voice?”

 

The green paladin snorted. “Whatever you say, idiot.”

 

Then time accelerated again.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance paced his cell, arms and legs aching after his many attempts to punch the guards for information about Keith. Two days. It had been two  _ fucking  _ days since he had seen that familiar mullet, or those dark violet eyes staring at him, or Keith’s confused expression when he didn’t understand something he was saying. Two days since he lost the red paladin, and that was driving him crazy, with a feeling running through his body that wouldn’t leave him alone, asking him to  _ do something! _

 

Lance ran his hands through his hair again, trying not to pull the strands out as the familiar feeling of helplessness rose up his spine. A clang drew his attention to the metal that clutched his leg, a small red light flashing. Lance had been taken to be a slave on that planet, having to carry all sorts of material under the scorching sun along with some other captured aliens. He couldn’t talk much with the other prisoners since the guards had a great deal of control over them— all big misshapen eyes watching them critically.

 

The door to his cell opened and three prisoners were thrown in there before the door closed again. Lance looked at them cautiously, recognizing two of the prisoners he’d tried to talk to before: A big big man with scaly skin and brown eyes, named Gail; and another called Career, slim— perhaps taller than Lance— with dreads. The third one was shorter but full of muscles… Lance didn’t know him.

 

“Hey, McClean,” Gail said, sitting down heavily on the floor. Lance nodded in acknowledgment, seeing Career sit on the other side of the cell.

 

“Any information?” Lance asked seriously, eyes evaluating the reaction of the other men. Career gave a deep sigh, before pointing to the prisoner Lance didn’t know.

 

“This is Zazel, he’s with us.” Said  _ Zazel  _ nodded at Lance. The blue paladin just stared at him.

 

“He’s mute. Won’t tell anyone anything,” Career said. Zazel just blinked quietly. “Well, I’ve been looking around here and there, trying to find a loophole and figured something out…” the man’s eyes flew to the Cuban boy to watch his reaction, “Those who were taken to the other side of the city are considered authentic.”

 

“Authentic?” Lance repeated frowning.

 

“People who are pure,” Gail said, “who haven’t had any kind of sexual intercourse.”

 

“W-what?” Lance stammered.

 

“Virgins,” Career explained simply. “They took the virgins. They’ll be sold in a public square in two weeks’ time in Takal.”

 

Lance let out a breath he didn’t know he held, hands falling to his brown hair and pulling at the strands. “Sold,” he breathed out, the word leaving a bad taste in his mouth. “To whom will they be sold?” He asked urgently.

 

“To those who have the most money, man,” Career answered, “the highest bidder takes it.”

 

A wave of nausea rose through his stomach and almost made him gasp.  _ Sold _ . Keith would be sold to a random stranger and taken to who knows where and be made to do…  _ No! _ Lance took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm before turning his attention to Career, who was watching him silently.

 

“Do you know where they are now?” He asked roughly, trying to prevent a knot from forming in his throat.

 

Career shook his head.

 

“Just that they’re in some accommodation in the city. Other than that, nothing more.”

 

“So I just have to find a way to get there.”

 

“How, if you’re a slave, McClean?” Gail asked not rudely, but totally curious.

 

“Exactly. All it takes is for me to be able to be taken there, which will be soon if the constant flow of work in the cities says anything. I just need to sneak in.”

 

Lance wasn’t stupid, even with his frenetic concern he kept an eye out for anything that could help him find Keith; and that led him to Career and Gail who would help him with information and escape plans.

 

Career scoffed, small eyes watching the blue paladin with interest badly hidden. “That boy must be very important to you, if you’re so willing to die for him.”

 

“Yes. He is.”

 

As Lance had predicted, work in the city didn’t take long to come up. Two days after the blue paladin began sharing the cell with the other three men, an old caravan had appeared and taken some of the prisoners with it— including Lance and Career— to the town of Unaro, a city that looked a lot like the cities of the Old West that the Cuban boy had seen many time during movies on Earth.

 

Leaping to the reddish ground, Lance let his blue eyes wander through the various establishments made of thick wood, some peeled and almost falling apart, others with dirty cloths hanging to serve as a hideout for the scorching sun. Feeling the other prisoners being forced out of the caravan, Lance tried not to be intimidated by glaring at them and focused on a way to find out where Keith might be.

 

“He must be in one of the saloons,” Career whispered at his side, face looking away as they were led by the guards. The blue paladin’s eyes darted around, ignoring the number of people in the city and focusing on the saloons scattered across the street. Career continued, “Saloons serve to prepare the authentics for the day of the sale.”

 

“Prepare?” Lance muttered back, voice coming out with a grunt. Career nodded slightly so as not to attract any attention to them.

 

“Yeah. Clothes, skin, that stuff…” The man answered. “They won’t touch him so they don’t damage the goods, making him worth less. So your friend is safe for now, but not for long.”

 

The dirt road led them to a small square where the prisoners were forced to line up. Lance didn’t look at Career as people approached to see the slaves and make their bids. The paladin tried not to show his disgust at being chosen to work in one of the taverns, the alien woman giving the looter coins before picking up his chain and pulling it. Career gave Lance one last look before he disappeared into the crowd; they would talk to each other later.

 

The tavern was disgusting. There was a lot of noise, lots of drunken men and a horrible stench of cigarette and urine. The woman named Tara had sent him to carry the large boxes of drinks and place them in the back of the house, to fill large barrels of water and carry them to the second floor where there were some rooms to sleep.

 

Throughout work, Lance let his eyes wander everywhere, until during one of the times he was carrying the boxes out, someone caught his attention. She was an alien with big brown hair and shy eyes, she wore a light dress as she walked quickly down the alley, carrying pieces of clothing on her arms. Lance’s heart leapt in his chest as he recognized her. She was one of the prisoners who shared the cell with them on the looters’ spaceship. She was one of the aliens that had been taken when the scanner whistled.  _ She must know where Keith is! _

 

Trying not to draw attention to himself, but walking quickly, the blue paladin approached the girl. He didn’t give her time to scream as he grabbed her arm and pulled her into a corner where no one would see them.

 

“Sorry, sorry,” he said when those eyes looked at him in fear. “Do you remember me? Lance? I was in the same cell as you on the looters’ spaceship?”

 

Her eyes widened as she recognized him and Lance felt relief pouring through his body as he released the girl. “You’re the human boy.”

 

“Yes, yes,” he said hastily. “Sorry for scaring you, but I need your help. I need to know if Keith is with you.”

 

“Keith?” The confused girl asked.

 

“Yeah, do you know? He’s shorter than me, with dark hair and pretty violet eyes?”

 

The girl frowned as she thought, until her mouth opened with a surprised “Oh”.

 

“He’s in the same place I am.” The girl raised an arm to point to a precarious building not far away, where aliens came in and out. “They put us there after we arrived… we know we’ll be sold in a few days,” the girl continued silently.

  
  
  


Lance kept staring at a building as ideas raced through his mind. His blue eyes soon returned to the girl in front of him, she couldn’t be a year older than him. A child. He took a deep breath, the decision weighing on his shoulders like bricks.

 

“I’m going to get Keith out of there,” he said with conviction, watching the girl’s eyes widen. “I’m thinking of something still, but know that I’m not alone in this. I’m giving you a choice here, if you want to have a better life, I suggest you don’t leave Keith’s side… I’ll get to him sometime and get him out of here, if you want to get away too, be around.”

 

Tears streamed down the girl’s round face as she listened to those words, “A-are you going to take us home?”

 

Lance nodded softly.

 

“I don’t think it’s possible at the moment, but maybe one day…” he sighed, ruffling his hair before looking back at her. He didn’t like this part of being a paladin when he had to say bad things to those who still had hope. “Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen. It might not work out when we escape, it might be that we get caught before we can get away or something… I can’t promise you’ll come out alive if you help me, I can only offer a dangerous path… it’s up to you. You can stay here and be sold and maybe have a good life, or go with me and try to run away to have an uncertain future.”

 

The alien looked at him deeply, the tears stopped falling. She bent her head to avoid looking at the blue paladin. Lance was feeling a large weight settle in his stomach, uncertainty hovering over him until big, determined eyes stared back at him and when the girl spoke with a ferocity that surprised him. “I’ll go with you.”

 

Her name was Haley, and as he imagined, she was younger than him. His ferocious, determined attitude reminded him of Allura, especially as she helped him infiltrate the decaying building, filling his arms with clothes and putting a thin cloak over his head to hide as much of his face as she could.

 

Lance’s heart was pounding hard enough to hurt his chest as he approached the door of one of the bedrooms, Haley had left him in front of the door with a single “there,” before leaving him alone. Remembering that he had to be quick so no one would catch him up there, or suspect that he left the tavern, Lance just opened the door and entered, locking it behind him.

 

“If you’re trying to get me into that ridiculous outfit, I’m going to kill you,” Keith’s dangerous voice came from a closed door that Lance assumed was the bathroom.

 

He walked to the door in a hurry before leaning against it to say the only word that hadn’t left his thoughts for more than two days. A low, hoarse “ _ Keith _ .”

 

He listened for a few excruciating seconds to the eternal silence on the other side of the door before there was a hasty noise from the lock. There was a curse before the bathroom door opened, revealing a Keith dressed in a light shirt and old pants, his hair was messy, his cheeks were red from what Lance assumed to be anger and his big, purple eyes stared straight at him .  _ Perplexed _ .

 

The red paladin raised his hand and with extreme care, let the tips of his fingers touch the other boy’s face. The touch was so light and so hesitant— as if Keith was afraid that if he touched any harder, the boy would evaporate right before his eyes. Lance barely felt it. However, before he could do anything else, the same fingers that touched him so lovingly curled into his robes and pulled him forward firmly, their two bodies colliding.

 

Lance didn’t care about the harsh way Keith had pulled him. He didn’t care how his chest hurt when the air was forced to rush out of his lungs. He didn’t care when he felt black strands of hair come into his open mouth causing him to spit them out. No. He couldn’t care less when he had Keith in his arms. Not as he felt the red paladin curl up into him so fervently, as if he had missed him more than Lance had. Having Keith’s face buried in his neck as he inhaled deeply made him squeeze the younger boy even harder and thrust his nose into the thick strands of hair, smelling the familiar scent of Keith. A smell that reminded him of home.

 

For a few seconds, Lance allowed himself to stay there.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance swallowed, heart pounding uncomfortably faster as he watched the two of them embrace in the middle of the room. He discreetly cleared his throat, ocean blue eyes diverting to other places until they stopped at his paladin friends. Hunk wiped the tears from his eyes that didn’t stray from the scene before them; Pidge was slapping big man’s back in consolation, brown eyes undeniably curious and analytical—  _ Lance could see the gears spinning in that little head and whatever those thoughts were, he knew he wouldn’t like them. _

 

Shiro had a soft smile on his face, eyes full of that affection he showed when everyone was doing well in group training. And Keith… 

 

Keith was a mystery. Not that Lance was trying to understand the boy.  _ Of course not, after all he couldn’t understand someone who had the emotions of a rock. _ It’s not like he cared what was going on in that stupid mullet head, but he was pretty sure he’d never seen that look on the red paladin before. Was that  _ sadness  _ in his eyes? Lance was sure that the other only knew how to be angry at things, or angry about them, but what about that melancholy as he looked at his other realities?

 

_ It doesn’t matter, Lance! _ He scolded himself severely, turning to face his other self talking to Keith about his plan, apologizing for not being able to stay any longer, saying he had to go soon. He saw the restless but forceful look of the other boy, violet eyes running through the blue paladin’s face, hands squeezing one last time before letting go.

 

_ We’re rivals! _

 

The other Lance glared at the younger boy before him, standing outside the room. Not wanting to go but not being able to stay.

 

_ We’re nothing more. _

 

Keith closed the door.

 

* * *

 

 

In the days leading up to the big auction at Takal square, Lance managed to sneak into Keith’s room whenever a job in town was assigned to him. With the help of Haley; who not only hid him under layers of cloth every time he went to see the red paladin, but who also served as his eyes and ears, they came to the conclusion that they would have to try their luck on the Great day.

 

They knew that it was risky to try and escape when many guards probably guarded the place, but they also knew that that could— _ would _ — be used in their favor, since all those guards would be clustered in one place, too busy to pay attention to them. Everyone would be in the square, too focused on the auction to look at them.

 

“You’re forgetting that Haley and I will be there, too,” Keith said a day before Takal. “You know… Like, literally at the center of everything."

 

Lance looked at him, blue eyes looking deep into the dark indigo ones.

 

“We’re going to create a distraction,” the Cuban boy said, an indolent smile appearing on his thin lips, eyes shining with malice. “I hope you can still fight, samurai.”

 

Keith smiled, eyes closing to face the other. The familiar feeling of competitiveness emerging inside of him. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, Sniper.”

 

The smile lingered on Lance’s face even as he left.

 

…

 

Lance closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the sun penetrating the fabric of his clothes and heating up his skin. He let himself smell the dry, battered earth, allowed himself to hear the swift, lively stride of the crowd walking down the street. He waited for the tightness in his heart to give way before he opened his eyes again; this time, determined.

Lowering his hat and straightening the worn-out overcoat he wore in order to keep his identity hidden, the blue paladino walked to the main street, infiltrating the stream of people without looking back.

 

Keeping his steps firm and looking straight ahead, Lance shoved his hands in his pockets, feeling the guns hidden under his clothes. He wasn’t able to retrieve their bayards, but Zazel had managed to steal guns and a few pieces of clothing on days when he was forced to work in sheds near the edge of the city with the desert. Seen as inferior because of his inability to speak, the guards barely paid attention to him, allowing the boy to get everything they needed little by little, until they had enough to escape.

 

Gail was responsible for the escape mode, having managed to separate four old and functional space motorcycles and hiding them in specific places near the auction to help at the time of escape. Career was in charge of distracting both the guards and the public, while Lance was the only one able to rescue Keith and Heyla from being sold.

 

Upon arriving in Takal square, Lance understood why the place was used to host auctionings. The space was wide open, even surrounded by establishments, the area was exposed enough for those who were in town to know how to get there without struggling since every street, corner and alley led there. There was a worn-out wooden stage ahead, right next to one of the hotels where Lance knew Keith was at that moment,  _ ready to be sold. _

 

Throwing the thought aside, the boy crossed the sea of people until he was as close as possible to the stage. He could identify those who had more money than the others in the crowd, if their clean robes and shiny jewelry showed anything. He let his blue eyes wander until he saw Career’s smart eyes on the other side of the square.

 

A stout alien came on the stage and began to speak, the crowd cheered happily as the first  _ Authentic  _ was forced to take the stage wearing nothing more than a light pair of trousers. The enthusiasm of the audience grew even more as the offers began to be made. Lance couldn’t hear anything, his head feeling strangely empty as he saw the first three in line be sold to someone in the audience. Usually he felt numb, as if this was a strange dream and that he was actually lying on his bed in the castle of the lions, ready to be woken up by Shiro.

 

Watching the fourth alien being sold and dragged out forcefully into its new buyer’s arms, it made an unusual rage shoot up the blue paladin’s spine. Fuck, he was a paladin of Voltron, he was the good guy, the one who fought along his team so that people had the best, they did the  _ right thing _ . There was nothing right about that place. Nothing right about capturing natives and taking them away from home, nothing right about selling them on a black market to get money. Nothing right about seeing those people being treated as objects or worse… All of this only made him see red.

 

The audience cheered, and Lance felt his heart jump sharply as Keith was dragged to the middle of the stage, with nothing but a small shirt and dark trousers that fell over the hip bones. His face was red, violet eyes full of fire as he stared at the people before him. His hands were tied behind his back and two guards held his arms tightly so he wouldn’t move.

 

Lance took a step forward, his vision narrowing and focusing only on Keith. He could see Career out of the corner of his eye, probably trying to get his attention, but all he could see was the stage: the auctioneer’s mouth moving endlessly, making their offerings higher and higher as more buyers shouted, and the way the guards held the Korean boy tighter, creating marks on his pale arms. Large violet eyes peering through the crowd endlessly. Searching.

 

Lance let out an irritated sigh, “Fuck this.”

 

Just as Lance drew his guns from under his coat, an explosion in one of the wagons caught everyone’s attention. He looked at Career, and the alien just nodded before another bomb exploded— closer to the stage. The chaos spread soon after. The paladin took advantage of the cover he received from the people running and raised his guns, firing two shots at one of the guards that held Keith.

 

The smaller boy took advantage of that moment to get rid of the other guard, kicking him in the knee hard enough to break it before hitting his head with another kick. When a sentry tried to catch the red paladin, Lance fired two shots right at his chest, causing the guard to fall dead. Violet eyes locked with his at the very moment a patrol arrived in the square, all with fire guns.

 

Another explosion caused pieces of wood and debris to fall on the stage, forcing Keith to crouch awkwardly in a corner while trying to find a way to free his arms without being injured.

 

Seeing this, Lance ran. He ran toward Keith firing at those who came too close to the other boy. He saw the exact moment one of the guards noticed him and turned the gun toward him, but before he could worry, Zazel appeared riding a motorcycle, carrying a laser machine and firing on all of them.

 

Lance turned his attention to the stage only to feel a smile spread across his face. Known for being reckless, Lance shouldn’t have been surprised to see that Keith had already gotten rid of the ropes, gotten a sword and was now actively fighting three guards. His form swirled and rippled through the bodies of the three big men with such grace that Lance almost felt embarrassed to be watching.

 

“McClean!” A loud voice shouted before something appeared by his side, startling him a little. Gail stopped the motorcycle beside him, Heyla was sitting right behind him, arms tightly clenched around the other. Gail pointed to an alleyway just behind him. “There. Just take your human, we have to get out of here. Five minutes. We’ll be waiting for you on the border.”

 

Lance nodded. Gail waved one last time before accelerating, lifting dust and throwing it on people. Looking at Keith one last time to make sure the boy was okay—  _ more than okay if his appearance meant anything— _ he allowed himself to go into the alleyway. He quickly approached a strange shape against the dirty wall. Pulling the tarp to reveal the old red motorcycle.

 

Lance smiled, “How ironic.”

 

The engine noise was what drove people out of the way as he drove toward Keith. Skidding to the side of the stage and casting a dirty look at the other boy. Keith raised a thick eyebrow, all messy hair and flushed cheeks.

 

“Hop in, Mullet,” he said maliciously.

 

“Always.”

 

Keith got in just as Lance raised the gun and fired at the guards. He threw the guns at the younger boy before accelerating the motorcycle, sliding over the sand as he found a way out of the square. Shots echoed behind them and Lance felt the exact moment Keith turned to fire back, one of his arms around his chest.

 

He skidded around a corner and listened to Keith’s barely contained snort. “I’m sorry I’m not a good pilot like you, samurai,” he muttered without real bite as he heard the other’s laughter.

 

Something appeared to his right, causing Lance to jerk the motorcycle to the side, preventing the collision by a few inches. It was a guard riding a motorcycle, he barely managed to point to the blue paladin before Keith fired at him, knocking him down. Not wanting any more surprises, Lance took his motorcycle to full capacity, feeling the boy behind him squeeze his arms tighter.

 

Lance doesn’t know how long his escape lasted exactly, or at what point he and Keith left the city behind with less than half of the fleet in their tails. He just knew that the sun outside of the city was even worse without the buildings serving as shade; it was much quieter as well. Sometime during the trip to the city, Career, Zazel and Gail joined the paladins and so they went on until there was nothing but sand before them and the sun behind them.

 

* * *

 

 

The sky was dark and speckled with stars. The sand dunes snaked and scattered all over the place, far enough that Lance couldn’t see how far they’d gone. He couldn’t feel the cold, but he knew it was windy as the sand moved endlessly.

 

Just like the cold didn’t bother him, it didn’t seem to bother the two boys sitting on the sand a few feet away. Embracing. They hadn’t separated since the group fled the city, stopping at an abandoned house several miles away from Takal, where the alien had said he had a place in mind for them to go. Lance wasn’t so sure about that.

 

Lance turned to the red paladin beside Hunk.

 

“Tell me Keith, as a desert survivor and knowledgeable of the sand world, can they survive an entire trip in the hot sun?”

 

Keith looked at him unimpressed. “It depends on your resistance. They could survive a few days without problems.”

 

“Well,” Pidge began. “This is bad. I can’t imagine that.”

 

“I just wanted to know what’s going to happen to the lions.” Shiro said curiously. “Cause it looks like they’re going to spend some time on this planet.”

 

“This is bad,” whimpered Hunk. “I don’t think I could stay away from Yellow,” he thought for a moment. “I don’t… I don’t really see how that would be possible, especially because we wouldn’t be able to form Voltron.”

 

The team took some time to think, until other Keith’s low voice came into focus. “Where are we going?”

 

Lance tightened his grip on Keith’s shoulder, pulling him closer, trying to share more of the warmth of his body with him. “I don’t know.”

 

“What will become of Voltron?” The red paladin continued,voice coming out so soft it seemed as if he was talking to himself. Lance squeezed him harder, buried his face in his dark locks as Keith’s hand came up to grip the overcoat, fingers running through the ragged lines of the fabric without actually feeling it. “The others… they won’t find us, Lance… and our lions…”

 

“Keith,” the taller boy called. He stared at the other. “ _ We’ll _ find them. No matter how long it takes, we’ll see them again.” He said with conviction. “Trust me on this.”

 

Keith stared at him. Lance caught his eye.

 

“I do,” he replied.

 

Lance saw the moment the weight slipped off his other self’s shoulders as he said those words. Even his heart throbbed with that. Keith of that reality trusted him.

 

Keith touched Lance’s cheek softly, short nails stroking the dirty skin of the other boy’s face. A small but loving smile appearing on his lips.

 

“I do, Lance,” he repeated. “Forever.”

 

Then Lance of that reality did something he was well known for, he grinned, as if Keith had just given him the world and much more.

 

And then reality began to distort, darkness surfaced, preventing him from seeing more of the other two boys. Lance tried to look at his paladin friends, but the darkness reached him first, leading him to whatever mad reality that waited for them. All he got out was a simple word.

 

_ Fuck. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some notes. Career, Zazel, Gail and Haley become the paladins' new family. They spend months surviving on the planet, stealing from bad guys and doing some odd jobs to earn money. They also save more people whenever they can. They only managed to find the other paladins a year and six months after, when they Galra arrive on the planet after new slaves to use as subjects for their new experiment.
> 
> So that's it^^~  
> See you on the next chapter!!
> 
>  
> 
> Hey guys, so... I'm going to need some songs suggestions. Tell me some songs you'd listen to on a road trip if you have any!! This will help me when I'm writing the next chapter ;-)


	3. Roadtrip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is of legal age.  
> Matt is crazy.  
> Keith and Lance are pining.  
> Hunk is cute, as always.  
> And Shiro is a sexy man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO GUYS HOW YOU ARE TODAY?
> 
> well, I'm a little late uploading this chapter BUT here it is!   
> The songs are at the end of the chapter.  
> Enjoy <3

 

 

The place where the paladins landed this time was a bright room in an apartment with the television on, a messy couch, and papers scattered on the floor with a window wide enough for the neighbor in the other apartment to see what was going on there. Lance felt his heart leap painfully in his chest as he saw that they were on Earth, in some city but _still on Earth_ , and it almost made him cry. A door slammed somewhere, and another Lance with a phone up to his ear, wearing only loose blue shorts appeared, dark skin totally on display making both the blue and red paladin blush.

 

“Come on, Keith,” Lance whined, throwing himself on the messy couch, not worrying about the pencil tip nudging his back. “It’ll be fun.”

 

 _“I’m not so sure about that, Lance,”_ The voice on the phone said, distinctly Keith.

 

“Why not? It’s just a wedding…”

 

_“Your ex-girlfriend’s wedding.”_

 

“In one of the cooler places ever. We’ll be close to nature, breathe pure air that the city doesn’t offer.”

 

_“It’s going to be a whole day in the car, Lance.”_

 

“I already said that I’ll take you—”

 

_“I don’t wanna go.”_

 

“You’re my best friend, you can’t do this to me. You have to be with me in all the important moments of my life.”

 

_“How is your ex-girlfriend getting married to a friend of yours an important moment?”_

 

“You’re missing the point here, Keith. Come on, it’s gonna be great bonding time.”

 

_“We have enough bonding time. I don’t think traveling to the end of the world in a car for 20 hours just to see your ex get married will serve to strengthen a friendship that’s been going strong for more than 9 years.”_

 

“It’s going to be a cool trip—”

 

_“To the end of the world, Lance.”_

 

“We’ll be able to relax—”

 

_“Seated in a car for 20 hours.”_

 

“And enjoy the scenery.”

 

_“Of grass fields and cows. Yeah, great scenery.”_

 

“The sky is very beautiful at night.”

 

_“We’re going at night?”_

 

“Ha!” Lance exclaimed victoriously, throwing his fist into the air. “You said _we_ , Mullet.”

 

_“I’m pretty sure that’s not what I said.”_

 

“My ears are working very well, Kogane. And no, we’re not going at night, but early morning.”

 

_“I don’t remember agreeing.”_

 

“I’ll buy all the ramen you want for you for a month.”

 

_“I’m sure Acxa has better things for me at her house…”_

 

“You choose the playlist for the trip. You can listen to all the Imagine Dragons, K-pop or Indie songs you want to.”

 

_“The ones you said weren’t as good as Shakira?”_

 

Lance nodded, “Exactly. I won’t even complain during the whole trip.”

 

_“I highly doubt it.”_

 

“I’ll buy that big stuffed hippo we saw in the store next to your job.”

 

The other end of the line went silent before Keith’s hesitant voice spoke again, _“The purple one?”_

 

“Whatever color you want,” Lance agreed, unable to keep his voice from coming out affectionately. Keith went silent again. “You won’t need to worry about anything, Keith,” Lance continued, getting up from the couch before walking around the living room.

 

_“You owe me a hippo.”_

 

“Yes!” Lance exclaimed, jumping in the air.

 

_“Don’t be late picking me up, McClain.”_

 

“I won’t be, Keith.”

 

_“I want my hippo at my house by Thursday, if not, no deal.”_

 

“Okay, okay, I’ll buy it today, alright?” Lance appeased, “Anything else, sir?”

 

_“Yes. I want your coat.”_

 

“My coat?” Lance laughed.

 

_“Yes, Lance, your coat. I like it. It’s big, warm and comfortable. I wanna wear it.”_

 

“It’s all yours, then.”

 

_“Great, now goodbye. You’re getting in the way of my work.”_

 

“I love you too, Mullet,” Keith didn’t answer, instead hanging up the phone, eliciting a chuckle from Lance. Keith was really something, wasn’t he?

 

Shaking his head to stop himself from thinking about the other boy, Lance turned his attention back to his projects scattered across the table, couch and floor, opting to finish it soon seen as he had far more important things to do later; like finding his coat and buying Keith’s stuffed hippo.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance looked at his friends, watching Hunk open and close his mouth as if he was about to say something. Whatever he had tried not to say, he couldn’t keep it to himself any longer, quickly saying, “So, Keith likes hippos?” Everyone looked at him before looking at the red paladin whose cheeks began to blush. Hunk smiled lovingly as he always does when he likes something. “Is it just me, or does anyone else find it adorable?”

 

Keith choked, cheeks getting super red and shoulders rising in defense. “I-It’s not adorable!”

 

Lance looked at the boy mockingly, crossing his arms over his chest before turning to face him. “So you really like hippos? I didn’t expect that from the great _Look At Me, I Hate Everything Kogane_.”

 

Keith puffed his cheeks, eyes burning towards the other paladin, face almost close enough for Lance to feel his breath. “They are so cute!” He exclaimed fiercely, “Have you seen them in person? They’re big, chubby and cute and I’ve always wanted one!”

 

“That _is_ really cute,” Pidge muttered to Hunk, who stared at the other in wonder, Shiro just laughed at the red paladin, seeing his embarrassment.

 

“I’ll see what I do for you, Keith,” he promised. Keith stammered, backing away from Lance— who still laughed— folding his arms firmly over his chest and turning his face away from the others.

 

“Seriously, if I have a cow in the castle, why can’t we have a big hippo?” Lance questioned, earning a deadly look from the other.

 

The world for the paladins accelerated.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance found the shorter boy standing by the entrance of an ice cream shop, his body leaning against the wall, chewing on a lollipop stick while he lazily looked through his phone. Lance took the time to look at him, watching the rays of sunlight reflecting on the dark strands of hair that fell like gentle waves over his face and shoulders. His violet eyes were bored as they glanced through the notifications that appeared to him.

 

Lance had known Keith was handsome since the first time he’d seen him walking through the hallway of his old school years ago when he was 13. They became friends after Lance accidentally mistook him for a girl and offered him a rose — Keith had punched him right in the jaw, offended by being called a girl. The day after, Lance found him again and offered him a bite of his lunch as an apology. They were glued to each other’s sides ever since.

 

But there was something about him now that made him even clearer (and ethereal) in Lance’s eyes. Maybe it was the fact that he was taller now that they were both adults — _thankfully not taller than him, thank you very much —_ or maybe it was his clothes that seemed to become tighter as time went by. It could also be how his eyes shone more and more over the years, leaving the violet color practically gray. His features— _almost—_ lost that disinterested look he had always worn, showing the number of expressions that Keith had: a grimace, a roll of his eyes, the grin…

 

Lance didn’t even noticed the slight smile that spread on his face, and that grew as he saw the small red piercing that shone on Keith’s right ear. _Pretty_.

  


“Why are you smiling like an idiot?” Keith’s dull voice spoke, pulling him away from his daydream.

 

“Wow, Keith, hello to you too. Looks like we’re turned on all the turbines today, doesn’t it?” Lance grinned, raising an eyebrow and looking at the boy sneeringly. Keith gave him an unimpressed look.

 

“So, are you gonna buy me an ice cream, love?” Lance spoke, throwing his arm over the other’s shoulder and gesturing to the door next to Keith. The shorter boy simply shrugged.

 

“I will if you pay.”

 

“I thought you had invited me?” Lance looked from side to side, seeing he furrowed his eyebrows slightly before admiring his eyes.

 

“You invited me.”

 

“No, no. Pretty sure it was you.”

 

Keith grabbed his phone, went to voicemail and played Lance’s messaged, the boy’s excited voice echoing through the speakers. _“Keith, meet me at that ice cream shop that we went to that one time. I’ll pay.”_

 

Keith raised an eyebrow that said _‘you’ll deny it even after hearing it?’_ . Lance looked away with a grumpy pout e grumbled a _‘you won this time’._ A toothy grin spread through the other’s face, and Lance realized that he didn’t care that he asked at all.

 

Four cups of ice cream later, the two walked to where Lance had parked his car, an old Lada Niva painted a faded turquoise blue that lance nicknamed Blue for lack of a better name. Keith waited patiently by the door, finishing his last ice cream as the other opened the door.

 

“Are you all packed?” Lance questioned, opening the passenger door to Keith, who sat down before nodding, his full attention on the ice cream in his hands. “Great, ‘cause mine are already on the trunk and I don’t wanna have to go back home.”

 

“If that was some sort of weird invitation to sleepover at your apartment, I’ll have you know you’re way past that since you barged into my living room yelling about a spider in your room, and that you couldn’t go back unless it was dead and—”

 

Lance shuddered, reversing out of his parking spot and heading to the street. “Spiders are terrible.”

 

“And,” Keith continued, as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “I know you have a copy of my keys since I moved there which, by the way, I don’t know how you managed to make without my consent.”

 

“I have my ninja moments.”

 

“Like coming in through the window of my room only by climbing the fire escape ladder when you didn’t wanna sleep by yourself?”

 

“Friends, Keith,” Lance pointed out, not taking his eyes off of the road, “That’s what friends are

for. It’s in the Friendship Manual, if you didn’t know.”

 

Keith licked the spoon indifferently, an empty cup of ice cream on his hands. “I don’t know about that.”

 

Lance huffed, “How are we friends again?” He asked himself. Keith simply turned on the radio to some K-pop song and smiled.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance furrowed his eyebrows while he saw the reality unfold before him, trying his best to understand exactly what he felt as he saw one more interaction between Keith and him that didn’t involve bickering and yelling, but friendship and laughter. He was more than confused, he even felt a bit insulted with that because how could _he and Keith_ be like that? Where was all the rivalry? Where were all the conflicts that he was used to?

 

An ugly feeling appeared on his chest, spreading through his body even as he tried to suppress it. He wanted to see the fights, wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong with _him_ for being like this, for bickering with Keith. He wanted to make sure that in other realities he’d be the same Lance he had always been, but _nothing like that is happening and I’m seeing myself be friendly with my sworn enemy!_

 

He couldn’t understand his two realities, but he was sure that it was all Keith’s fault.

 

* * *

 

The day was bright when Lance put two of Keith’s suitcases in the trunk, the warm rays of sunlight were almost enough to make Lance take off his coat and throw it in the backseat that by the way, was full of packets of food and bottled water. Lance sighed and leaned back against the car, hands in the pockets of his coat as he stared at the apartment door waiting for Keith to appear.

  


The night before was the time of preparation for the trip, Keith had managed to take three days off from the pizza place he worked at over the weekend, which helped a lot in organizing the luggage. The wedding would be on Sunday afternoon, being a far away place and as Lance wanted to take some time out for himself, he had arranged with Keith to leave on a Friday morning, find a hotel on the road to rest before continuing the journey to the location.

 

Lance closed his fingers, feeling the thin paper of the invitations touch his fingertips. He sighed, he and Nyma weren’t a couple anymore, it had been more than six months already. Their breakup wasn’t full of fights and misunderstandings like many out there, it was a mutual understanding that they decided to end it when she had told him that she had feelings for somebody else. Despite feeling hurt, Lance understood and agreed, and of course he ran to Keith’s place after that, crying like a baby whose mother had forgotten him at the grocery store. He was still recovering from the breakup when he received Nyma’s invitations from her, and of course, being an idiot masochist, he said he would be there— Keith had almost punched him for that. And now here they were.

 

The sound of the building's door opening brought his attention back, his blue eyes soon finding the skinny boy who walked towards him, wearing black leggings and those stupid red boots that he never took off. His shirt was also black, but it was practically hidden under Lance’s olive green coat that was too big for him, reaching the tip of his fingers.

 

Keith pushed him out of the way and got in the car, ignoring the stupid smile on Lance’s face. “Not a peep,” He groaned when Lance’s laughter became louder. Lance got in the car excitedly and turned on the engine.

 

“Not a peep,” He agreed, the same smile still plastered on his face.

 

…

 

Shakira’s song played on the radio loudly. Lance sang happily while casting glances at Keith, who covered his face and ears with Lance’s coat, hands firmly at the side of his head, trying to prevent Lance’s lousy singing from infiltrating his ears. Lance nudged the boy with one hand while the other remained at the wheel, fingertip hitting the other’s belly with each word, causing the other to shrink.

 

_Mira que cosa bonita_

_Que boca más redondita_

_Me gusta esa barbita_

 

“Shut up, Lance!” Keith yelled, removing the red coat from his face, “You’re a terrible singer!”

 

Lance paid him no mind, simply singing his lungs out to the same verse, “ _Me enamoré, me ena-na-namoré”_

Keith took the hand that was nearing his belly once again, holding it tightly so it wouldn’t move and poked Lance hard. The other boy laughed.

 

“You’re ridiculous,” Keith said, trying to hide his small smile. Lance placed his hand back to the steering wheel, lowering the volume of the radio when another song began to play.

 

“Come on, Keith, latin music is awesome.”

 

“Yes, but your voice is terrible,” Keith stated, making the other boy gasp, offended.

 

“My mom said I’m an amazing singer, Kogane.”

 

“Well, she lied,” Keith stated, looking at his nails. Lance looked at him for a few seconds.

 

“You wanna be thrown out of the car?” He asked jokingly. Keith raised an eyebrow at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

“Do me this favor, McClain,” Keith’s sneered. Lance simply laughed.

 

“Wanna hear me sing _Rabiosa_?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Keith let out a shriek of horror.

 

“For the love of god, _no_ ,” Keith ran to the radio before Lance had the chance, changing the song to a calm electronic one. He nodded to himself before pulling the hoodie back over his head, wrapping Lance’s coat around himself. He looked menacingly at Lance, a finger pointing at him. “Don’t. Change. It.”

 

Lance simply nodded, biting back a smile.

 

…

 

Lance hummed to himself, eyes fixated the dirt road in front of them only occasionally shifting to a large map extended in front of him on the dashboard to steer him to the right place. It had probably been around three hours since they left the state behind, buildings fading every time they left the city and entered the farming area. Keith fell asleep after happily eating two bags of chips previously hidden way in Lance’s coat, his head then resting against the window and dark bangs covering his eyes.

 

Lance turned his attention back to the road, furrowing his eyebrows a bit before shifting his attention back to the map; just making sure he wasn’t lost. He wasn’t sure for how long he had been driving for, but it was probably a long time if the pain in his ass said something. Shifting around on his seat, Lance glanced over at Keith, watching him sleep quietly before letting his blue eyes wander around the landscape outside.

It was beautiful, though he couldn’t see any cars passing by— it had been a while since he saw any—, the way green fields stretched out until his eyes could no longer see or the road that seemed to be infinite gave him a sense of calmness. Something that cities didn’t. Lance smiled softly at that, opening the window and letting the cool wind mess up his hair.

 

The car jerked, startling him a little and waking Keith from his nap. Lance looked out the window to see what the car had hit, but there was nothing. The vehicle continued shaking for a few meters until finally it stopped. Lance frowned, turning the key in the ignition and stepping onto the accelerator, the engine complained for a moment until it stagnated. Keith was now wide awake.

 

“What happened?” He asked, looking from Lance to the car, seeing the other boy still trying to bring it back to life.

 

“It… It won’t start,” Lance answered bewildered.

 

“What?!” Keith exclaimed, quickly sitting up straight, a scowl rising on his face. “What do you mean it won’t start?” He growled.

 

“It won’t start!” Lance repeated, taking off his seat belt and getting out of the car. Keith followed, both halting by the hood of the car and opening it, smoke covering them immediately, making them both cough and step back. Lance waved his hands, trying to disperse the smoke so he could see better, seeing that the wires connected to the battery were burned.

 

“Shit,” he murmured, catching Keith’s attention. The shorter boy went beside him, curiously looking.

 

“What?” He asked, pointing to the burned-out battery. “What’s that?”

 

“That,” Lance sighed regretfully. “Is what makes the car start.”

 

Keith blinked at him until what Lance had said finally processed. “What?!” he shouted.

 

Lance shrank a little as the scream hurt his ears. Keith shook his head fiercely, a chorus of _no, no, no, this can only be a joke_ coming out of his lips as he paced around before stopping by Lance again.

 

“What are we going to do now?”

 

Lance shrugged, mind running through the alternatives to get out of this situation. From everything he thought would be a problem, the battery dying and leaving them in the middle of nowhere never crossed his mind.

 

“Let’s call for help,” He replied in a more rational way. “There’s a town a few hours from here, there must be a repair shop there.”

 

Keith didn’t wait, running to the passenger seat and pulling his phone out of his backpack. Lance turned his attention to the battery, his eyes wandering clinically through the wires, if only he knew how to fix it…

 

A particularly nasty scream from Keith took him abruptly out of his thoughts. He ran to the other boy, heart heavy as he thought he had hurt himself, only to see him pacing around, holding his phone up, occasionally jumping.

 

“Son of a bitch!” He swore, standing on his tiptoes and stretching his arm as high as he could. “ _Come on_.”

 

“Keith?” Lance called, voice filled with uncertainty. The boy turned his angry eyes at him, dark hair ricocheting on his red face, his lips wrinkled angrily. “What—”

 

“No signal,” Keith interrupted. “This damn road has no signal!” He murmured.

 

Lance’s eyes widened, hands fishing through his pockets until he found his phone, only to see the same thing as Keith. “Shit.”

 

“I knew something would happen, I _knew it_! I should’ve followed my gut, it never fails!” Keith stamped his foot. “I knew it!”

 

“Keith,” Lance called. “Calm down.”

 

“ _Calm down_?” He repeated in disbelief. “How can I calm down when all I see around us is trees! And there’s a cow right there!” He pointed to the other side, where a cow grazed solitarily, ignoring them.

 

Lance let out a breath, eyes traveling all over the place. Really, there was nothing there. “Shit.”

 

“Is that all you know how to say” Keith complained as he walked toward him with a scowl, hair falling in his angry face. “Is that all you have to say?”

 

Lance groaned, “What do you want me to say?”

 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Keith sneered, throwing his hands up, making the coat fall from one of his shoulders. “Maybe something like: sorry for dragging you to this, Keith.”

 

“Sorry for dragging you into this, Keith,” Lance repeated, but with no bite, making Keith stop and stare at him. He sighed before coming closer to the other boy slowly, the scowl on Keith’s face hadn’t lessen at any moment while he watched him. His hands touched his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Keith.”

 

Keith huffed, turning his eyes away from Lance. He crossed his arms and stomped his feet again. Lance kept watching his until the scowl had left the shorter boy’s face. Keith sighed. “We can’t stay here,” He bit back his anger, after all, it wasn’t really Lance’s fault. “We gotta go get help.”

 

Lance backed away. Keith furrowed his eyebrows at him.

 

“And we’ll leave Blue here?” Lance spoke in shock, “In the middle of nowhere?”

 

“You got any more ideas?” He wondered, “‘Cause there’s no way I’m staying here until someone happens to find us.”

 

“What if someone steals it?”

 

“There’s no one here, Lance! Who would steal a blue car that isn’t even running?”

 

Lance let out an exasperated sigh, replying, “I would.”

 

Keith huffed, “Yes, but there’s no one like you.” A grin spread through his lips. Keith shook his head, throwing his hair back. “Not the time, Lance,” He quickly added before some shit left the other boy’s lips. Lance deflated a bit.

 

“I know,” He grumbled, running his hands through his hot face. Lance gathered all the determination he had. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. It’s still daytime, we have a few hours until the night falls. There’s city not far from here, we could walk until we get a ride or whatever. We get back here when we find a mechanic.”

 

Without a better idea in mind, Keith simply nodded.

 

And with that, the two boys decided to push the car away from the road, almost hiding it among a tall patch of grass. They took with them two bags of chips, two water bottles, and the map, before begging to walk.

  


* * *

 

 

With the map in his right hand and his phone in the other, Lance took another heavy step. His breathing was hard, he was really tired. His eyes went to the boy walking ahead of him, his hair tied on top of his head and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his pale shoulders, tying his coat around his waist as angry murmurs left his lips every once in a while. Lance stopped, turning his eyes towards the sky and letting the sun touch his face.

 

He felt gross, his clothes clinging uncomfortably to his body. The heat was unbearable, and they were almost all out of water. What’s worse, the town was still far away from them. Lance groaned, hearing Keith giggle.

 

“Shut up, Mullet.”

 

Keith opened his lips to retort, before stopping suddenly. His eyes widened as he spotted something. Lance raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“Lance,” He spoke, his voice slightly shaken. “I think that animal is staring at us.”

 

Lance scoffed, “Nice try, Keith—”

 

“Lance, he’s coming our way!” He screamed. _That_ got his attention. He looked over his shoulders, seeing something like a bull coming their way. He reached out, trying to find Keith’s wrist.

 

“ _Run_ ,” Was all he said before they took off running through the road. Keith yelled something, but Lance didn’t pay attention, running so much he felt his legs begin to hurt.

 

“Lance!” Keith yelled again as they came across a crossroads, going right. He knew that the thing was coming after them, if the angry huffs said something, so he desperately threw

whatever he was holding at it. The map.

 

Lance looked over his shoulder, seeing what he could now confirm was in fact a bull, stop and use all its strength to tear the map into shreds. That gave him time to push Keith to the side and throw himself down as well. The grass engulfed them completely, leaving them out of the bull’s sight. The animal began trotting around before he grew tired, eventually turning around and leaving.

 

Keith turned his head to look at Lance, his face red and sweaty, hair messy and full of grass. They let themselves breathe a little before they began to laugh half-heartedly. His legs still wobbly with fear and a strange smile on his face, the taller boy stood up, offering his hand to Keith, who accepted it. They stared at each other, watching their confused, disheveled and breathless state, grass and dirt clinging to them like second skin.

 

“That was fucked up,” Lance concluded, earning a wild laugh from Keith.

 

“W-We ran away from a bull,” The other boy gasped, holding his stomach from laughing so much. “We fucking _ran away_ from a bull.”

“And we lost the map,” He added, face hurting from laughing so much. Lance sincerely didn’t know how to react. He didn’t know whether to laugh more or cry.

 

Keith looked at him through his bangs, eyes widening in terror. “Oh my god. Oh my god. _Oh my god!_ ”

 

The sound of an engine echoed, interrupting their hysteria. They turned around, facing the road they had just come from, seeing a tall, black truck coming closer. Lance fought back the urge to jump in the air, but Keith didn’t.

 

“Hey!” He screamed, arms flailing over his head, trying to catch the driver’s attention, running towards the truck. Lance followed suit, ignoring the ache all over his body and shouting out until the truck stopped by them. The big door opened to reveal an elderly man with a straw hat.

 

Keith and Lance made a face.

 

“What are two young men doing on a road like this?” He asked, raising a white eyebrow. Keith opened his mouth, but nothing came out. So Lance stepped up, smiling on of his charming smiles at the man.

 

“Hello, kind sir. You see, we were in the middle of a road trip and the car just died,” He spoke. The looked at the questioningly. “So we had to walk all the way to here, until a bull decided to come after us so we had to run,” The man’s eyes widened, “We just wanted to get to the nearest town…” He continued.

 

“Could you give us a ride?” Keith interrupted, with no hesitation. He pressed his hands together nervously. “At least drive us somewhere we can sleep?”

 

“Why, of course! How could I leave two kids like you out in the middle of nowhere, so far from home? Get in, get in, I’ll drive you to Havenna,” He gestured frantically to the two boys. Lance helped Keith get inside before he did as well, closing the door.

 

The next few minutes were the longest of Lance’s entire life. The man who had helped them was Carlos, he worked on a farm far away and told them everything about his life, talking about how he and his mother fought about everything, for the bathroom, for the food, and for the bath towels. Lance glanced sideways at Keith, biting back the smile which wanted to come out, realizing that the other boy was having the same problem. But at least he agreed with the old man, making occasional comments. Lance had a distinct feeling that the man had liked him very much.

 

As promised, Carlos left them in the small town of Havenna an hour and a half later. Lance thanked him even as the man went on with his trip, very grateful that he and Keith didn’t have to walk all those miles. Despite the luck they had with the ride, they were unlucky with a mechanic, as they couldn’t find one and the only one in the whole town had died two weeks earlier.

 

Tired, Lance watched the sun go down behind the buildings, making way for the night with Keith sitting by his side. The two were silent for a few minutes. Lance cleared his throat.

 

“It could be worse,” He said with false optimism. Keith looked at him skeptically, deep violet eyes staring at him in disbelief.

 

“Really?” He asked. Lance just shrugged, blue eyes searching for something until they spotted a decadent bar across the street. He reached into his pocket for a few dollar bills. He looked at Keith.

 

“Wanna drink?”

  


Half an hour later they were sitting on the counter with five empty glasses each. The bartender ignored them in favor of continuing to clean the countertop, which seemed dirt beyond cleaning. There was a young man singing karaoke on the small stage with a high-pitched, clumsy voice and few people sitting at the tables, all bored. Lance looked at the karaoke again, blue eyes shining.

 

“I’m gonna sing!” He exclaimed suddenly, startling the boy at his side. Keith blinked slowly, drink taking effect in his smaller form until he slammed his forehead against the counter.

 

“Noooooooo,” He groaned. Lance turned to the bartender excitedly, clapping his hands on the table.

 

“Does it have all types of music?” The bartender stared at him, before saying a simple, tedious “yep.”

 

And that was all it took for him to run to the stage with Keith still moaning lamentably on the counter. Lance practically kicked out the man who had once been singing, before he started typing excitedly on the computer. It wasn’t long before Charlie Puth’s song sounded from the speaker. Lance took the microphone to his lips, his voice hoarse from the alcohol.

 

_What you thinking?_

_You think that you could be better off with somebody new_

_No oh, oh baby, no_

_You say you’re leaving_

_Well, if you wanna leave there ain’t nobody stopping you_

 

He stared at Keith, who was still half-dead at the counter, his body moving to the beat as he tried to seduce the boy. He pointed to his friend, still singing the song.

 

_I lie for you, baby_

_I die for you, baby_

_Cry for you, baby_

_But tell me what you’ve done for me_

 

Keith raised an eyebrow at him, trying to hide his smirk. Lance gestured madly for him to step onto the stage. Seeing that the other wouldn’t get up, he walked clumsily to stand in front of Keith, taking his hand and placing the other microphone in it.

 

Keith sang at the same time as Kehlani’s voice began, tongue twisting a little from the drinks and the shame he felt. Feeling brave as he saw no one looking at him, Keith accepted Lance’s hand and allowed himself to be lifted off the bench, stumbling on his feet until he reached the front of the stage.

 

_I wont beg for you love_

_Won’t say please (oh no, won’t say please)_

_I won’t fall to the ground on my knees (on my knees)_

_You know I’ve given this everything_

_Baby honestly, Baby honestly_

 

So Lance laced their fingers together, pulling him closer and making their bodies move together as he began to sing the chorus with him.

 

They kept singing to each other, forgetting they were in the middle of a depressing bar with tedious people who didn’t spare a glance at them. They forgot that they were in their dirty clothes and that they needed a bath, they forgot that they got a ride to arrive at a small town somewhere in the map. They didn’t remember the bull or even the car that had been abandoned on some empty road that would probably be stolen.

 

No.

 

They could only see each other, eye to eye, hands together and voices met, bodies swaying. And they realized that, for now, that was all they wanted.

 

.

* * *

 

 

“That’s embarrassing,” Lance groaned as he watched the two boys singing disastrously in the middle of the bar. Of the ten regulars who were there, only one looked at them, with depressed eyes and an open mouth, with a glass in hand, spilling all the liquid on the floor.

“Wow,” Pidge began, “You guys are terrible singers. My ears are hurting real bad.”

 

“Don’t be so bad, Pidgeon, I’m sure you’re even worse,” Lance complained, eyes turning back to his other self, who had tripped over one of the tables. Lance placed both his hands on his head and groaned loudly, “This is a disaster!”

 

Shiro let out a small laugh, tilting his head slightly. “I’m finding it pretty funny.”

 

“That’s ‘cause it’s not you ruining your reputation!” Lance accused, pointing a finger to the older man’s face.

 

“At least not _yet_ ,” Keith corrected mysteriously, looking at the black paladin. Lance threw his arm over the shorter boy’s shoulder, startling him.

 

“That’s right, listen to Mullet here. He actually gets things right once in a while.”

 

Keith rolled his eyes, but didn’t answer. He didn’t back away, either.

 

* * *

 

 

They shared a bed. After almost drinking everything available at the bar and singing until their voices were hoarse, the bartender was pitiful of them enough to offer a tiny room with a single bed, plus a cold shower in a dirty bathroom in the hallway and his clean clothes the next day. Needless to say, Lance literally cried and stammered while Keith slept standing by the wall.

 

It wasn't good waking up the next day with his head pounding, throat aching, dirty and pressed up against something warm— _not that the latter part was bad, but he was hot—_ Lance opened his eyes, groaning when the light came straight to him. He turned his body until he felt himself fall to the hard floor, a sheet clinging to one of his legs. There was a disgruntled groan from the bed.

 

Sitting up, Lance noticed four things. 1) It was already morning; 2) There was a small breakfast on the table along with painkillers and two glasses of water; 3) He didn’t know whose clothes he was wearing, and 4) The disgruntled groan came from Keith, who had already sat on the mattress with messy hair, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

 

Tired violet eyes fixed on him. “What happened?” He asked in a broken voice.

 

Lance yawned, before responding calmly. “Alcohol.” As if that were enough to explain everything. Keith nodded slowly, eyes closing for a few long seconds before opening with the same slowness.

 

Lance ran his hands over his face to try to keep himself awake. “We have to keep moving”" he said, just to hear the noise of Keith falling against the mattress with another groan.

 

…

 

After a good cold shower and two painkillers, Lance was ready to leave, only waiting for Keith to finish his breakfast so they could go. The bartender had brought back their his clothes clean and dry as he had promised, leaving them in the doorway before leaving without a word. Lance reached into his coat pocket, feeling the texture of the invitation that never left that spot. He thanked whoever was listening for the address on the paper, otherwise he and Keith would be over.

 

“Let’s go”? Keith spoke beside him. Lance simply nodded, and the two were walking out of the bar less than ten minutes later, stopping by the street and trying to decide which way to go.

 

“We’ll need another ride,” Lance stated, watching the shorter boy’s reaction. Keith simply shrugged, and looked at him through his bangs, the coat that swallowed his frame making him seem awfully cute. Unable of holding it in, Lance wrapped an arm around Keith’s neck and pulled him in closer, their bodies colliding before they began walking again.

 

The walk was much less dramatic than last time. This simply walked for a while, playing together until they reached a gas station— where an old lady had told them was a great place to hitchhike for long trips. They walked into the convenience store to look for sweets, walking between the shelves while they talked about nothing in particular.

 

Lance grabbed a chocolate bar. “I was thinking of taking a trip later this year,” He told.

 

Keith side-eyed him, hands busy with a bag of chips. A teasing smile spread on his lips. “Another trip? Is this was not enough?”

 

Lance scoffed, “It’s not _that_ bad.”

 

“No, no. Of course it isn’t. Going somewhere without a car, running away from a wild animal, getting lost at the road, hitchhiking with an old crazy man, and stopping by a town where the alcohol isn’t even that great. Yeah, that’s just luck.”

 

Lance elbowed the shorter boy. “I’m just saying it could be worse.”

 

Keith turned to him immediately, slapping his arm. “Never say that! That’ll jinx it!”

 

“Geez, I’m just trying to be optimistic.”

 

“Well, you can be,” Keith agreed, walking to the other aisle, “But do it quietly.”

 

“I’d listen to the little one,” A lively male voice spoke, making the two boys turn their bodies to face him. He was a boy, at least five years older than them, tall with brown hair and eyes dressed in colorful jeans, flip-flops, and a battered Iron Man shirt. The guy leaned against a pilaster, chewing a licorice. He pointed at both of them. “What’s your story? Did you get lost in the middle of the way or did a goat try to eat your shoes?”

 

“A bull,” Keith replied suddenly, cheeks blushing as the attention was fully on him. “To be exact…” He finished awkwardly. Lance took a step forward, almost blocking Keith’s sight with his body.

 

“Sorry,” He began, raising an inquiring eyebrow at the guy. “But I don’t think we know you.”

 

“Don’t mind him,” Another voice answered. A short girl with the same hair and brown eyes appeared, big glasses reflecting the light from the mini laptop computer she held. “Matt’s an idiot who doesn’t know how to shut up.” The boy didn’t refute, he just kept chewing. She raised an eyebrow at the two boys. “You’re lost, right? That happens a lot.” She closed the screen and turned her full attention to them. “Where to this time?”

 

“A wedding,” Keith replied, immediately causing Lance to make a loud noise. He pointed at Lance. “It's his ex.”

 

“Keith!  You can’t just say all of this to _strangers_!”

 

“They’re probably around our age. What’re they gonna do? Post it on Twitter?” The shorter boy sneered, folding his arms.

 

“That doesn’t change the fact that they are, y’know, _strangers_ ,” He repeated as if it were obvious. Keith just turned to him with his arms crossed, violet eyes shining with mockery.

 

“We took a ride with the strangest old man I’ve ever met in my life, Lance, I don’t see the difference between Carlos and these two.” Lance opened his mouth to retort when he was interrupted by a startled chuckle.

 

“You’re going to your ex’s wedding?” Matt asked, surprised, thick eyebrows rising up so far they almost vanished into his hair.

 

“ _That’s_ new,” Pidge agreed. Lance crossed his arms and turned away.

 

“We’re friends,” He replied petulantly.

 

“Some friend she is,” Keith quietly added, but Lance heard it anyway.

 

“Listen, if the two of you,” He said, pointing to the two brothers, “Are here just to mock me, I hope you at least have the decency to help us.”

 

“Help getting to the wedding?” Matt asked, amused. Lance narrowed his eyes at him.

 

“That’s right, funny guy.”

 

Pidge threw the computer into her backpack. “Cool, you can come.”

 

Keith and Lance’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

“Wait, are you serious?” Lance asked. It would be really cool if he and Keith got a ride to the wedding, seeing that their luck was going from bad to worse since the day before. He really was afraid of it somehow getting even worse as the days went on.

 

Pidge looked at them as if they were two idiots. And maybe they were. “Do you want a ride or not?”

 

Keith was the first to move.

 

* * *

 

 

“Matt,” Pidge whispered as she saw her brother again. _Well_ , Lance thought as he stared at his friend, _at least Matt looked happy there, and not like one of the many victims abducted by the Galra_ . The Galras were really nasty beings, destroying all that was happiness. First was the planet itself, then Altean and during all those ten thousand years, _how many more planets died in their hands? How many people? Civilizations?_ Lance clenched his fists, a rage so long accumulated creating roots inside his chest. _For god’s sake,_ Lance too cool guy to _really_ hate anyone, but the Galra exceeded their boundaries astronomically in less than a month as he and the others arrived in space.

 

The first time he felt something like that, he tried to ignore the feeling. Please, he was much better than that. But all proved to be the extreme opposite over the months, seeing the near death of his friends every single day didn’t make someone’s pure heart stay intact in front of the aggressor. But of course, he didn’t let that feeling take over him. Remaining the same playful, flirtatious guy as he was known to everyone. Pulling Pidge’s hair, stealing Hunk’s cookies, thinking of ways to remove Shiro’s robot arm, clearing with Coran, hitting on Allura and fighting the stupid Mullet with the name of Keith.

 

But here, seeing Pidge’s eyes gleam with tears of longing not shed for a brother who had been missing for months… It made that ugly feeling boil in his blood. He put his hand on the green paladin’s shoulder.

 

“We’ll find him, Pidge,” He assured, seeing those eyes widen at him. Lance felt a presence at his side before feeling Hunk’s enormous arms surround them both.

 

“We really are, Pidge!” He agreed, “Don’t be sad, ‘cause if you get sad I do too. And if I get sad, I’ll end up crying and—”

 

“We’ll help you,” Keith’s voice spoke, bringing their attention to him. Shiro was at his side, eyes soft but full of determination. Keith continued, “We’ll look for him in every bit of this galaxy, no matter how long it takes… We’re with you, Pidge.”

 

The girl let out a surprised laugh, quickly wiping a tear from her eyes. Before looking at them all. “Right. Thanks, guys.”

 

Lance let out a chuckle as Pidge started to grumble about hug. “Alright, alright,” He said, letting go of the girl, “There, you’re free.”

 

“Shut up, Lance,” Pidge said, straightening her glasses and looking away, but Lance could see her cheeks flushing and the little smile on her face. His blue eyes glanced over all his friends before they stopped at Keith, breath catching in his throat for a few seconds as those violet eyes locked into his. A slow, small, almost tender smile appeared in his features, making him look more serene than he _ever_ was. Lance could only breathe again when those intense eyes drifted away from his, body returning to the stiffness it had acquired over time, as if they had never looked at him in the first place. Lance murmured a curse before he also looked elsewhere. _It’s not like he liked being looked at, anyway_.

 

* * *

 

 

Matt and Pidge had a van. A van so full of things that it barely had any space left. Lance couldn’t

even begin to understand what all those things were, but he was sure he saw at least two computer screens serving as clothes racks. He and Keith squeezed into the seat covered with duvets and colored cushions just behind the front seats, being separated only by a thin metal bar covered with computer wires, photos decorated almost every corner of the van.

 

“I hope you’re comfortable,” Matt said, sitting in the driver’s seat and slamming the door twice until it closes. “I put all that stuff there so Pidge could sleep comfortably.”

 

“That actually wasn’t one of your worst ideas,” The girl agreed dryly. Matt smirked, turning his body to the two boys in the back seat.

 

“She could be worse than that,” He said, earning an elbow in the stomach.

 

“Just shut up and drive,” She complained, seeing her brother giggling. She turned to the two new passengers inquiringly. “Tell us everything.”

 

And Keith did. Starting from the moment Lance called him and begged him to go along, to the part where the car broke down in the middle of nowhere and how they had to walk many miles to get to a town. He told them about the bull that chased after them, and how they lost their way, how Lance lost the map— _Lance had to remind his friend that he had to do it to save their lives, damn it!_ — to the ride they got with Carlos, to the bar with the terrible alcohol where they got too drunk and embarrassingly sang to the people who couldn’t care less about him. He spoke about the small room and the tiny bed that they shared and how the bartender, who didn’t even know then, helped them, even if he didn’t seem to like them.

 

Pidge didn’t take her eyes off of the computer screen, fingers flicking over the keyboard as she heard Keith speak. Lance spoke only to add onto his narrative, or to make some sarcastic remark. Matt’s eyes widened, and he giggled whenever the boys told him some especially unlucky event.

 

Lance sank into the cushions, watching as Keith and Pidge fell into a heated argument about conspiracy theories. He couldn’t help but smile at how the other boy spoke so excitedly, his eyes gleaming with joy whenever Pidge agreed to his explanations, black hair framing his radiant face, his full cheeks red. He sighed, seeing how his coat looked good on Keith, the smaller boy hadn’t taken it off since they left the bar, making something warm spread through Lance’s body.

 

“Close your mouth or you’ll catch flies,” Matt spoke, shooting him a knowing look. Lance snorted and averted his eyes, arms folded firmly over his chest. Embarrassment hidden beneath a facade of indifference. Matt just smiled. “Okay, where are you guys going again?”

 

“To Castle Altean,” Lance repeated with a grunt. Matt just nodded, hands dancing at the wheel.

 

“Are you a couple?” He asked suddenly, making Lance choke on his own saliva and Pidge and Keith’s conversation halt.

 

Lance felt his heart pound like crazy, his eyes running straight to Keith, seeing the other boy’s cheeks begin to blush furiously, red lips gaping, beautiful violet eyes staring at him bewilderedly. Lance felt his cheeks heat up instantly, as if he had pressed a button.

 

“O-of course not!” He exclaimed loudly, his voice a little shaken, “We’re just friends!”

 

“W-where’d you get that from?” Keith stammered to the older boy, his face completely flushed. Matt simply shrugged.

  
“Just wanted to know,” He replied, “You’d make a nice couple.”

 

Lance and Keith looked at each other again, before looking away shyly. “T-thanks,” Keith replied in a small voice, embarrassed. His eyes were unable to look at the other in the car. Seeing that no one else would say anything else, Pidge just turned on the radio.

 

…

 

Blue eyes gazed sleepily at the sky through the window, seeing the colors blend into each other creating a new color between orange and yellow, and the light reflected on their skin and the van, his mind traveled everywhere; from which food his mama would be making at home in Cuba until her job at the Law Firm at Zarcon’s Company, wondering what her co-worker, Lotor, was doing right now. _Probably dating someone_ , his mind wondered.

 

He moved around a little, trying to get more comfortable, his whole body leaning against the fluffy pillows and head propped up against a particularly hard backpack— which he was almost sure belonged to Pidge—, since the girl had warned loudly that if they broke anything, they would face the consequences.

 

There was a comforting weight on his chest, not too heavy but at the same time not so light and a delicate touch on his neck like soft feathers of birds. He looked down, being hailed by numerous black strands, some almost glued to his left cheek; Keith’s face was buried in his neck, fluttering eyelashes tickling him every time he breathed, rosy lips almost touching his skin, breathing chills into his body. Lance inhaled sharply, the movement making the sleeping boy snuggle closer to him in his sleep, burying himself even more into Lance’s neck. Lance must have let out a sound as Pidge immediately turned to him, eyes scanning the boy in his lap.

 

“He’s really cuddly,” She said, straightening her glasses. Lance smiled fondly, fingers digging into Keith’s black strands, making the smaller boy sigh happily.

 

“He’s totally cuddly,” He agreed, “But he’ll do anything to make you think the opposite, like scowling and everything, but I know better… Keith can be totally cute if he tries.”

 

Pidge nodded and glanced quickly at her brother who met her gaze at the same moment, their minds analyzing and creating theories without showing. Lance didn’t even notice the discreet smiles they gave each other, instead he continued to entwine his long fingers between the many silky strands of his friend, fingernails scraping slightly on his scalp. A loud cellphone woke the other up, making him jump and sit up scared, hair going in all directions.

 

Everyone looked at him expecting some other reaction, but Keith just held his hands to his eyes, rubbing them lazily, fingers wrapped around the sleeves of Lance’s coat. As if to prove a point, Lance nudged the boy’s cheek. Keith just blinked at him, eyelids too heavy to really pay attention to anything, he just pushed Lance’s hand away and lay back on him, arms around his waist and face hiding again in his neck. Lance looked amusedly at the other two, eyes clearly saying “I told you so.”

Pidge nodded slowly, “He’s really something.”

 

“Our friend, Hunk, would love him then,” Matt added before widening his eyes and turning towards Lance again, making him raise an eyebrow. “I know you guys have places to be tomorrow and all that, but Pidge and I have to stop by a friend’s place to get something very important.”

 

“And where would that be?” Lance questioned, a bit worried. He didn’t want to stop by anywhere that would lead them even farther away from Altean’s Castle. Getting lost yet again was enough for him.

 

“Ah… Don’t worry, it’s not that far from here,” Matt answered, waving his hand assuringly, and Lance almost yelled at him to get his hands back into the wheel. “He’s working at this place close to where we have to go, anyway.”

 

“Sure…” Lance spoke unsurely, a confused scowl spreading across his face. He looked out the window, seeing that the night had already fallen and that he could no longer see any farms, but buildings and stores like a true city. Lance weighed his options, knowing it’d be easier and more practical to stay with the siblings than for him and Lance to try and find another ride. He took the invitations out of his pocket, checking the time of the wedding. Early afternoon, on Sunday.

 

His eyes turned back to the other boy. “Is it gonna take long?”

 

Matt looked at him through the rearview mirror. “If you’re worried about not making it in time for the wedding, don’t be. I guarantee that I’ll get you there on time.”

 

Even if he wasn’t one for believing strangers, Lance allowed himself to relax, after all, Matt hadn’t been nothing but a nice ( _and annoying_ ) company, and actually helped him because he wanted to, without asking for anything in return. So he just nodded, seeing a large smile spread across the other boy’s lips.

 

“Right!” He spoke excitedly, startling Keith in his sleep once more. “Here’s the deal, we’ll make a quick stop by our dearest Shay’s dorm room to take a quick shower and change. Then, we’ll go to Hunk’s work,” Matt turned back once more, his face a bit maniacal. “They won’t let us in with these clothes.”

 

Pidge huffed, her brown eyes rolling before she looked at her brother sceptically. “As if _they_ wore clothes.”

 

That caught Lance’s attention. “What do you mean by that?”

 

Pidge turned her attention back to the small computer, typing so furiously Lance was afraid the keys would fly off.

“Nothing really alarming… I did it!” She yelled suddenly. Keith huffed impatiently, sitting beside Lance and crossing his arms, giving up trying to sleep. Pidge turned to the two boys, a presumptuous smile on her lips. She straightened her glasses before looking directly at them. “Your car is currently going to a mechanic near Marmora hotel, just a few miles away from Altean Castle. You can get it tomorrow afternoon after five.”

 

Lance and Keith looked at the girl, amazed.

 

“How did you…?” Keith began, unable to finish his sentence due to how in awe he was.

 

“I just hacked into the road system after you said that you had left the car on a deserted road, so I connected with all the cameras until I found your car to be able to give the location to a tow truck and asked for it to be taken to the nearest mechanic of Altean Castle, having it be ready by tomorrow afternoon,” Pidge finished, adjusting her glasses again before looking at the two boys. “All sorted out?”

 

Lance nodded quickly as Keith let out a startled laugh. “You’re really good,” He said.

 

A suspicious shade of pink dusted on the girl’s cheeks, who just turned around with a huff and muttered a “don’t mention it.”

 

Matt just laughed.

 

…

 

Shay was a girl about Matt’s height who loved to wear large rings and two buns in her dark brown hair, a scarlet pink slipper, and a large fluffy green robe. Her eyes sparkled with excitement and her big loving smile made Lance feel strangely at ease when the girl had allowed them to enter her dorm room.

 

Five minutes was all the time he and Keith had to feel connected to the teenage girl. Shay told them how her day went while looking for clothes in her closet heaped with colorful clothes. Matt had retreated to the bathroom with his arm full of clothes, Pidge had thrown herself on the couch, lazily flipping through the television channels. Keith was sitting on the kitchen counter with a glass of water in his hand, laughing as his eyes watched the clothes flying through the bedroom door and piling up on the couch next to Pidge.

 

“I have so many clothes here that I don’t even know where to look,” Shay complained, half-disappearing into the wardrobe, still throwing the pieces over her shoulder.

 

Keith walked over to the couch and allowed himself to pick up a transparent black top off of the mountain of clothes, cheeks blushing soft pink as he saw the girl’s gaze on him, amused.

 

“It’d look good on you,” She commented, scratching her chin as she watched him. Lance laughed from his place on the floor of the room, watching Keith turn red up to his ears.

 

“N-no, thank you…”

 

“No way!” Shay interrupted, coming closer to him and dragging the boy towards the clothes, taking out a red jacket with white stripes on the sleeves and some tight black pants. She threw them to Keith’s arms. “It’ll go well with your boots.” Keith opened his mouth to disagree, but Shay’s strangely bright and cute eyes kept him from speaking, instead he just nodded and went into the bathroom just after Matt left.

 

Lance looked at the girl with a smile. “You went hard on him.”

 

“Depends on the point of view,” She winked with a cheeky grin on her face, going back to digging through her clothes. “I have some here that’ll look very good on you… I just have to find them.”

 

“I’m going to keep these clothes to myself, Shay,” Matt spoke, looking at himself in the mirror, hands trying to fix his unruly hair, but without success.

 

“As long as you give me something in return Smatt, I don’t really care.” Shay took off a jacket and threw it at Lance along with a pair of ripped jeans.

 

“How about that game you’ve been wanting since the first time you saw it?” The other boy negotiated, catching her attention.

 

“Don’t even think about giving Voltron to her, Matt,” Pidge interrupted immediately. “That game is very difficult to get, and I had to hack several accounts to get it.”

 

“Voltron?” Lance asked, trying to keep the clothes in his arms and not on the floor.

 

“It’s a game where you become a giant robot and complete missions against the Galas while having to defend the universe,” The girl replied enthusiastically.

 

“Voltron is very good, but you have to take a shower too.” Matt pulled the girl from the couch in protest. “You really don’t think I'm gonna let you go out with us without having at least taken a shower.”

 

“It’s not like anybody would know.”

 

“It’s enough that I know, brat,” He pushed her into the little bathroom next to the bedroom. “Now go clean yourself.” With that, he closed the door.

 

Lance laughed in his corner, before turning his attention to Shay as he tested the jacket on his shoulders. “You wouldn’t have another bathroom, would you?”

 

“There’s Plaxum’s bathroom, but I wouldn’t go there if I were you.” She stopped wiggling her clothes to talk to him conspiratorially. “I know she hasn’t cleaned it for more than a month. Imagine how disgusting that must be?”

 

Lance grimaced in disgust. “I’d rather not go there.”

 

The sound of the bathroom door opening caught his attention, and Lance tried not to let his mouth open as he watched Keith come out. Neat, dark hair tied in a small bun with a few light strands falling over his flushed face. The black blouse was a bit wider but looked good in conjunction with the black high waist pants, the red jacket was a bit loose over the shoulders but nicely matched with the rest of the clothes.

 

Keith wiggled his fingers uncomfortably with all the attention he received, placing the strands behind his ear nervously. “Does it look okay?” He asked.

 

“It looks amazing!” Shay exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands and jumping at the boy. “These clothes really look good on you. You can leave yours here and I’ll pack your things in a backpack, so when you go to the wedding you won’t miss a thing.”

 

“Thank you, Shay. That would really help us.”

 

“Okay. It’s all good, it’s great, but you,” She says, pointing at Lance. “Still aren’t ready, so if you don’t want to see me angry, you’d better go straight away.”

 

Lance laughed, running to the bathroom while saying “Okay, okay, I’m going.”

 

…

 

This whole _stopping by my friend’s work_ that Matt had said was nothing less than a gay club with tinted windows located just a few blocks away from Shay’s house. Lance let his blue eyes wander through the dark building where some colorful flashes reflected on the dark glasses of the windows. There was a huge line on the entrance, which he was very happy to cut, following Matt when he passed through the door, the big security guard letting him and the others through.

 

His hand searched Keith’s as soon as they passed through the door and walked through the dark hallway with purple lights, the sound of the hallucinating beats making the wall and the floor, the smell of skin, sweat and alcohol floating through space like a perfume belonging to the place. Pale, cold fingers laced themselves with Lance’s and squeezed.

 

“Okay,” Matt said, turning towards them when they came close to a heavy curtain, his slim body blocking the way. “I have some things to tell you two.”

 

Keith and Lance looked at each other before turning their attention back to the other boy.

 

“First, don’t mind what you’ll see in there,” Matt shook his head, uninterested as he watched the two boys. “Don’t ask me, you’ll see. I just want you to know that _here_ this is super normal. Second, the people here are kinda crazy, make friends if you want but don’t get drunk if you don’t wanna end up at the police hugging a watermelon. Believe me, that’s happened. Last, but not least, try not to get into trouble. I really don’t wanna have to save one of you from a bunch of mafia animals. Other than that, it’s all good.”

 

With that, he simply turned and disappeared behind the curtains. Lance looked a bit scared at Keith. “He said mafia?”

 

Keith nodded, not knowing how to answer. Pidge simply pushed him to the side. “Move, you idiots.”

 

For a few seconds, Lance wondered if going inside was a good idea, but he just by thinking of another way to get to the wedding made him give up and simply accept whatever was on the other side of the curtain. With a newfound determination, Lance squeezed Keith’s hand even more and used that to pull the smaller boy closer, not letting go even when they walked through the heavy curtain and straight to a sea of people.

 

His blue eyes widened, startled. Colorful lights reflected everywhere, there was a stage with large speakers where a shirtless man with a mini short and big purple headphones jumped while DJing. By his side there were drag queens scandalously dressed, with beer cups in their hands, dancing together. There were poles scattered across the place, where more men with only short lycra shorts and suspenders danced, a bowtie on their necks. The bar was on the other side of the room, completely full, people dressed in ways that Lance would find completely extra walked around everywhere, their bodies moving to the beat, some of them wearing tiaras with animal ears.

 

Scared of getting lost, Lance simply followed Pidge’s small frame which almost disappeared as they walked towards the bar. He walked faster, making Keith follow him as he tried to stay close to the girl, his body dodging whenever someone came in his direction.

 

“What exactly did you come get here?” He asked, his voice a bit louder so he’d be heard over the music.

 

“My game,” Pidge replied simply, dodging a boy dressed in nothing but a white shirt and a dog tail.

 

“Wait, what?” He exclaimed, Pidge looked at him as if he was an idiot.

 

“That’s what you heard, big boy, I came here to get my game that’s worth much more than your entire salary put together for three months. Legendary Defender, it’s a game that’s very hard to find nowadays, and I’ve let my baby with Hunk for too long. I want it back.”

 

“Couldn’t you wait until tomorrow?” He continued a bit angry, dodging yet another drunk. Pidge raised an eyebrow.

 

“Would you wait to get your money back from someone who lent it before or after they spend it again?” She refuted.

 

He was prepared to give her another snarky remark when they reached a table near the bar, and a tall man approached them, a yellow headband on his head, he wore a security guard outfit.

 

This man raised his hand, waving excitedly, a big friendly smile adorning his lips. His eyes were the most sparkling and loving ones that Lance had ever seen— except his mother, but nobody could beat her in loving smiles. Matt was right beside him.

 

“So, Hunk, these are the two boys I was talking about,” Matt spoke, gesturing to the two of them. If possible, Hunk smiled even more, squeezing their hands.

 

“I’m really not surprised that they got lost,” The tall man spoke, “Everybody gets lost in this town, sometimes I think it’s got some type of magic that attracts the unsuspecting, or something really dark in the air so that so many people get lost here. It’s what? More than five people a month? I think this town could use a prist.”

 

In five minutes Lance found out a lot about Hunk: he liked cooking, he has two cats which he named Milk and Chocolate Muffin, he kept a recipe book hidden away in the second drawer of his kitchen drawer so his partner wouldn’t get it, he hated horror movies and didn’t like the taste of alcohol, but he loved the place he worked at, as crazy as it was.

 

Britney Spears played loudly on the speakers, and people were going crazy while a line of waiters walked through the door where the kitchen was. They were all dressed in black short shorts, which left little to the imagination, bow ties and bunny ears. They carried trays full of colorful drinks,

 

“Oh my god,” Keith whispered, seeing all those muscles. Each men was better than the other. His poor gay heart was almost stopping.

 

(Lance laughed at Shiro’s mortified face when everyone saw his figure among the half-naked waiters, all four paladins laughing at Space Dad.

 

“I have to say, I didn’t expect that,” Pidge commented with laughter.

 

“I knew he’d show up sometime,” Keith mocked, his face gleaming with satisfaction. Lance shoved him off, his elbow resting on the other man’s shoulder.

 

“This time Mullet was right,” Lance laughed. “It was only a matter of time! I’ll never doubt that Mullet again, samurai!”

 

“Shut up,” The younger boy replied. But a smile was still on his face.

 

Shiro just stayed red with embarrassment. )

 

One of the waiters stepped out of the line and walked toward them. Lance felt Keith approach his side, as in awe as he was when the big, muscular man stopped beside Hunk, a jovial smile spread on his face.

 

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” He spoke with a kind voice, looking from Matt to Pidge.

 

“I needed to get my game back before someone broke it,” Pidge answered, casting a sharp look at Hunk.

 

“That was one time, Pidge! And it wasn’t my fault that Milk decided it’d be good to play with it. It was a nice DVD.”

 

“So was my game,” The girl grumbled. The waiter laughed and looked from Lance to Keith, curiously.

 

“Hey, you must be the lost boys,” He commented, reaching out his hands. “I’m Shiro.”

 

Lance shook his hand, still a bit startled. “Lance, this is Keith.”

 

They all turned to look at the boy sort of hidden behind Lance, but Keith simply remained quiet, his mouth slightly open, his face red and violet eyes wide at Shiro, running from the tie around his neck to the animal tiara on top of his messy hair. _He didn’t dare to look down._

 

“I think you broke him,” Pidge commented. Shiro simply laughed a bit, embarrassed before offering the tray so they could get the drinks.

 

“Just get it, I gotta get back to work.”

 

Knowing that Keith couldn’t do anything but look, Lance grabbed a yellow drink for him, placing it carefully in his hands before taking another one for himself. When everyone had their drinks, Shiro simply smiled a large smile and nodded, like a proud big brother.

 

“I’ll bring you some more when you’re done,” He looked at the two newbies again. “It was a pleasure meeting you, we’ll talk more later.”

 

With that the man just turned his back and walked to another table, the tray raised high up firmly as he dodged the bodies that came his way. Keith made a muffled sound in the back of his throat, eyes widening as he looked at the older man’s back, Lance followed his gaze in time to see a small white fluffy ball hanging from the other’s shorts, where just below it was written ‘ _Bite me here’_ , before disappearing.

 

Keith let out a deep, shuddering breath.

 

“He has a tail, Lance. A fucking bunny tail.” Lance looked at his mortified friend, red lips parting and closing almost speechless, eyes glowing the color of the club lights. “I want one.”

 

Lance and everyone at the table spat their drinks.

 

…

 

At some point in the night, another large glass of colorful liquor arrived in his hands, and after a few minutes— _or hours, he doesn’t remember—_ he couldn’t even feel his tongue anymore as he downed the drinks. He was sure he’d talked to a few drag queens with colorful hair, hearing a short boy tell him about his window-cleaner job from his brother’s chapel, almost knocking over someone’s drink, and that at some point he had lost Keith in the crowd on the dance floor. _Lance was almost sure he was with a lesbian couple but couldn’t confirm it_.

 

Hunk, even though he was working, stayed with him and Pidge while Matt disappeared somewhere on the second floor— Lance was sure he was with someone. Shiro appeared a few times to put drinks on the table and chat a little before returning to work.

 

Deciding that Keith had been missing for far longer than someone as emo as Keith _really would_ have been, Lance stood up from the table feeling his head buzzing a little with alcohol, but completely aware of his surroundings. He winked at Hunk and Pidge mischievously, finishing with his drink in one gulp before walking to the dance floor, electric blue eyes looking for the familiar face among all the others.

 

His heart skipped a beat worriedly when he couldn’t see him anywhere, however, before he thought of climbing on the stage and drawing everyone’s attention to look for his cute friend, a body slammed against his side, and pale arms wrapped around his waist, a chuckle was muffled against his shirt as Lance turned his face to look at the younger boy.

 

“Lance!” Keith exclaimed excitedly, eyes glowing drunkenly and flushed cheeks, there were three rows of neon colored paint staining his left cheek and bunny ears on his head, one ear folded down. “I found you, Lance!”

 

Lance laughed, turning his body so he could hug the other completely, burying his face in the sweaty, dark strands. “Yes, you found me.”

 

Keith turned away from his face, looking back and raising his arms excitedly to gesture toward a group of drag queen near them.

 

“It’s him!” Keith shouted at them. “I found him!”

 

“Good, dear!” One shouted back, lifting the glass of beer over her head as his friends clapped. “Take good care of your man, don’t let any sluts get close!”

 

Lance’s cheeks flushed at that, but Keith only nodded voraciously.

 

“He’s really handsome, Keith!” Agreed another. Keith grinned.

 

“I told you!” He replied with conviction. They bid him one last goodbye and a few more advices before they left, singing loudly the chorus of _Toxic_ along with the voice of Britney.

 

Lance looked at the boy in his arms, curious. “Who are they?”

 

Keith sighed pleasantly, burying himself in the boy’s chest as he moved his body slowly, totally opposite the music.

 

“The boss’s wives.”

 

“Who?!” Lance exclaimed. Keith poked him in the rib, making him cringe. “Who?” He repeated more quietly.

 

“Bi-Boh-Bi, he’s the mob boss. He was a DJ once,” Keith lifted his head to look directly at Lance, breath touching his cheek from how close they were. “He’s really cool, Lance. He’s really tall and skinny and he let me see his paintings. He uses red paint, Lance, it’s really cool.”

 

Lance tightened his arms around the other, pulling him closer and making the smaller boy lay his head on his shoulder.

 

“I’m pretty sure it’s blood,” He mumbled, mouth fading into Keith’s dark streaks, the boy seemed not to hear, just kept talking, telling the stories he’d heard from the other man, his fingers clinging to Lance’s shirt to prevent him from going anywhere far from him.

 

* * *

 

  


Lance moved uneasily, lips locked in a thin line as he watched his other self-cling to Keith as a lifeline, leaning his face even closer to the other boy to hear him speak as people moved around them.

 

He felt Hunk’s stare fixed on him, but decided to ignore it stubbornly, not wanting to hear anything his friend could say to him— again— about some mullet since Garrison’s time. Especially not in front of everyone. He just remained firmly silent, face closed as he watched the two boys get closer and closer.

 

_Keith raising his face and smiling at Lance…_

 

_Lips parting to laugh…_

 

_Eyelids almost closed making his eyes look like half moons…_

 

_Pale skin shining blue, green, red under the club lights…_

 

Lance tried his best to stop his cheeks from blushing, to make his heart stop beating so fast because he didn’t want to have a heart attack so young, but his body ignored him as it always did when it came to stupidly cute boys with bright eyes like stars and a rare smile that was as clear as the sun— _Stop thinking, Lance!_

 

The blue paladin snorted roughly, arms crossed over his chest and body completely tense, mind twirling and screaming and continuously thinking, and Hunk continued to look at him the way he used to do when they were still cadets and—

 

“I don’t know if you came to the same conclusion as I did,” Pidge’s voice came like a whip in his thoughts, making him stop torturing himself to look at her. The younger paladin straightened his glasses over her nose as she saw all the attention turned to her.

 

“What conclusion?” Shiro asked.

 

“That these realities are all about the life of Lance and Keith.”

 

“What?!” Lance gasped. Keith just looked at the girl.

 

“What do you mean, Pidge?” He asked carefully.

 

“Remember what the Basian’s leader had said before we came here? That such a stone would unite those who—

 

“Who had a deep connection,” finished Shiro, face glowing in accomplishment as he looked at the two paladins. Hunk looked at Lance but then turned his attention to Pidge.

 

“You mean their lives are connected?” He said cheerfully. “Like, soulmates?”

 

Lance squealed at that. “Not soulmates! His mullet is stupid and ugly! Pidge, you’re completely wrong—”

 

“It kinda makes sense to me,” Shiro continued, without addressing Lance’s drama. “For now we’ve only seen things related to the two of you.”

 

“But you were there too!” Lance protested vehemently, not wanting to accept the fact that he and Keith could have some sort of… some sort of deep bond. Just thinking about it made his whole body shiver because if it was true— _No! Don’t go there, Lance!_

 

But even with his whole mind screaming _DANGER_ with a bright neon red light, a feeling he didn’t want to recognize began to grow inside him like small sparks from a long put off fire. A fire that he wanted to remain hidden along with all the feelings he had thrown into the imaginary box in the back of his mind.

 

“That can’t be true—”

 

“Oh my god,” Came the mortified whisper of Keith, drawing everyone’s attention to the scene before them.

 

_Lance had come closer to Keith, one hand clutching at his waist while the other straightened the bunny ears that had slipped from the boy’s head. Keith smiled, his face growing redder as the taller boy’s fingers tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, his thumb trailing slowly down his flushed right cheek to the corner of his mouth where it remained._

 

_Keith gasped, lips parting in an incessant stammer before he simply gave up and buried his teeth in his lower lip, shaking hands coming up to rest on Lance’s collar, burying his fingers in the fabric and pulling it down a little, leaving room for the other boy to leave if he wished. He didn’t. Both paladins and the two teenagers sighed as their foreheads touched, eyes locked deep in a battle that everyone knew what the outcome would be._

 

_Keith licked his lips, violet eyes totally focused on the lips close to his, breath coming out hot and heavy as if he were in a marathon. He turned his attention to Lance’s dazzling blue eyes, seeing them fixed in his mouth before they rose to meet his eyes with a question barely hidden in them._

_The Korean boy sighed a “Lance…” at the same time that said “Keith,” and that was it._

 

_Lance lowered his head as Keith stood on his tiptoes and lifted his chin further, meeting the other’s lips halfway._

 

Lance gasped seeing his other self-holding Keith tightly and pulling him closer, lips moving against the other carefully despite all the craving, for fear of breaking something as fragile as their first kiss _._

 

_Keith opened his lips, allowing the kiss to deepen further, hands rising until his fingers spread through the brown locks at the back of Lance’s neck and he pulled back a little, smiling as he heard the boy panting._

 

“Looks like we have our answer,” Pidge concluded, cheeks blushing with embarrassment.

 

The blue paladin stammered a little, heart pounding in his chest, he tried to look away but ended up making the mistake of looking at Keith. The red paladin had both hands covering his cheeks and ears stained with embarrassment and his eyes closed tightly, but his eyelashes fluttered at every instant, indicating that he was dying to open his eyes and see everything again.

 

Lance took a deep breath, closing his eyes and trying to calm his nerves, the strong beats of his heart echoing in his ears and ignoring the embarrassed laughter of the two lovers. He really didn’t want to go through this, would it be too much to want to be in his bed in the castle?

 

His eyes returned to Keith who still kept his faces hidden in their hands as Shiro said something in his ear. And Lance concluded that wanting to be back in the castle wouldn’t change anything.

 

* * *

 

 

Kissing Keith was something that Lance always thought about, despite all the odds and events saying otherwise. He thought about it when Keith went to sleep in his house after six months of friendship and years later before he started dating Nyma. Even dating Keith, sometimes when he saw Keith hanging out with other boys, he wondered what his kiss would feel like, whether he was soft and shy or whether his whole impulsive attitude was shown in the kiss.

 

 _Soft_. This was Keith’s kind of kiss, even if his lips slid over Lance’s with purpose and hunger, the kiss was still so delicately loaded that Lance wanted to hold him forever and not let go. Keith smiled and the taller boy felt it through his lips, pulling the boy closer for a few more kisses before letting him pull away for air.

 

He loved how Keith looked now: messy hair and crooked bows on his head, dark strands framing his red and colorful face, kissed red lips open in a beautiful smile, chubby cheeks and his bright eyes turning into half moons. Lance found himself tracing the curve of Keith’s lower lip, smiling as the Korean boy sighed lightly, leaning his face into Lance’s hands.

 

“You’re really cute,” He spoke, having the pleasure of seeing violet eyes widen before Keith hid his face on Lance’s neck, ears burning with embarrassment.

 

“Don’t say that,” A muffled whisper against Lance’s collar, making the other laugh. The boy rested one hand on the other’s hips as he let him caress Keith’s back beneath his red jacket, feeling him wince.

 

“Why not, if it’s true?” He asked.

 

“Because then you make me shy.”

 

“It just makes me like you even more.” Lance answered. Keith shoved his head back, eyes wide on Lance.

 

“W-What did you say?” He stammered. Lance closed his eyes and sighed, well, they had already kissed, why not say it already?

 

Heart pounding in his chest, Lance pulled away and took Keith’s hands, “D-don’t you know a quieter place?”

 

Keith watched him before nodding slowly. “Come with me.”

 

Lance didn’t protest, he followed Keith silently as the shorter man guided them, fingers lanced so they didn’t get lost in the middle of so many people. At some point they passed the table where they had been earlier just to see it crowded with Matt gesturing excitedly in the middle of the crowd. Lance swears he saw a knowing look as the boy saw them, but only nodded before turning his attention elsewhere.

 

Lance swallowed, watching Keith lead them down a hallway, through a door and climb two flights of stairs until he stopped in front of a large iron door and simply opened it, letting in the cool air of the dawn. A terrace.

 

Keith let go of Lance’s hand and took a few steps back without meeting the other’s eyes. Hands playing nervously with the hem of his jacket. “The girls brought me here before they helped me look for you,” His violet eyes returned to Lance, making his breath catch in his throat with just how beautiful Keith looked stood under the lights of the city. “They told me to tell you the truth, but I was so afraid.”

 

Keith’s voice broke at the end of the sentence as if he being scared was something to be embarrassed about. Lance took a few quiet steps to stand before the one who had always been his best friend and now was something he didn’t know how to define.

 

Lance’s heart was pounding so hard it seemed like it would come out of his mouth. Praying to heaven for his body not to betray him now with a dramatic fainting, Lance only reached out, his fingers tentatively stroking Keith’s hands, until he could grab those pale hands between his, he lifted them until he could feel his thin and cold fingers against his lips.

 

“What is it?” He asked softly, trying not to have any rushed ideas, but even that didn’t stop the hope from blooming in the depths of his chest.

 

Keith cleared his throat, eyes closing as his body shook. Lance leaned closer, until his breath was stirring a few strands of Keith’s hair. Lance still didn’t lower his hands, guiding it until they touched his own face, kissing each knuckle lightly.

 

“Tell me, Keith,” He whispered between his fingers. Keith let out a painful groan. “Please.”

 

That was all it took for Keith to take a deep breath and say it all at once. “I like you,” Lance’s eyes widened at him, feeling the younger boy’s fingers tremble. “I’ve liked you for a long time, Lance, even before Nyma, but I was afraid to tell you because you were my only friend and I really liked you. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship because I just couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

 

Keith stammered, his eyes filling with tears as he continued to speak. “I was very sad when you started dating her, I thought you’d forget about me and I’d be alone… And, I was so afraid of losing you, Lance. I only had you, it was always just you, and then came your family and you guys made me have a new place and— then you started dating I thought I’d lose e-everything until you—”

 

Keith was crying now, fat tears streaming down his cheeks, eyes full of sadness and lament. Lance didn’t let go of his hand.

 

“I thought I was going to lose you,” He whispered again with a sob. Lance pulled him in then, hand wandering all over the place as Keith buried himself in Lance’s neck, body shaking with every sob as he held him tightly.

 

“You’ll never lose me, Keith,” Lance said on the other man’s temple, not minding a few strands that clung to his cheek. “I’ll never leave you, did you hear me?”

 

Keith nodded, but didn’t lift his face. Lance needed Keith to understand exactly what he was saying. So he held the other boy’s face, lifting his face wet with tears and wiping them away fruitlessly with his finger before holding the sides of his face, his fingers tangling in the dark strands. Lance kept his eyes on him until Keith looked at him.

 

“I’ll never let you go because I love you,” He confessed, feeling satisfied as he saw the other’s eyes open up more at that. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, I was stupid, but that ends now, Keith. So listen to me, I don’t care if I have to repeat that every day until you believe it: I love you.”

 

Keith let out a surprised sound, between sobs and a laugh, his eyes still filled with tears. He looked at Lance’s blue eyes with his face so lovely that Lance couldn’t hold back from kissing him, feeling Keith’s relieved laughter reverberate through his body. The boy sprawled his hands against the other’s golden cheeks, his expression still a mixture between joy and surprise. Without knowing whether to smile or cry.

 

“Y-you love me,” He repeated, Lance simply nodded, kissing those open lips once again. “You love me, Lance,” He stated between kisses.

 

“Yes, Keith. I,” Kiss. “Love,” Kiss. “You,” Kiss. Lance moved away to see those violet eyes gleaming with unconditional bliss once more. “I’ve always loved you.”

 

Keith bit his lower lip, uncertain, before looking at Lance, doubtful. “Does that mean you’re my boyfriend now?”

 

Lance threw his head back and laughed, arms wrapped around the other unnecessarily tight. But that was just because he wanted to, and now he could. “Yes, Keith, you can bet your emo ass that I am.”

 

They simply laughed and kissed again, not minding the cold wind that blew threw them or how the floor beneath their feet trembled due to the music of the club. Lance came closer to give him the hundredth kiss until he was stopped by a hand covering his mouth. He raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“What about Nyma?” Her wedding is a few hours from now…”

 

“That doesn’t matter. Why would I go to my ex’s wedding when I have a brand new boyfriend who’s really cute in my arms?” Lance flirted, with a malicious smile. Keith hit his arm, his cheeks blushing pink.

 

“Don’t be cheesy,” He grumbled, embarrassed.

 

“I’m sorry, baby, you’ve got the whole McClain package. No changing, no take backs,” Lance hugged Keith as if he was a fluffy teddy bear, making him complain.

 

“What did I get myself into?”

 

“There you are, Matt was looking for you. We’re leaving soon!” Pidge spoke from the iron door. She raised an eyebrow as she saw them hugging. “Does that mean you’re all sorted out now?”

 

Lance raised their hands, fingers laced together, as Keith hid his face with his other hand. “Officially boyfriends.”

 

“I’m relieved, the sexual tension between you two was terrible.”

 

“Pidge!” The both yelled. The girl simply shrugged.

 

“What? I’m not lying, every time you looked at each other, I wanted to kill myself. Matt also agreed, I’m sure Hunk and Shiro noticed too. Anyhow, are you still going to the wedding? If so, we gotta leave now.”

 

Lance looked at Keith, who looked at him curiously through his dark eyelashes, his hair totally messy and his lips totally kissable.

 

“No,” He replied, surprising both Keith and himself. “We’ll go with you in the van, if you don’t mind.”

 

Pidge looked at both boys surprised, “Hm, I don’t mind, but… where are you going now?”

 

“I don’t know. Where are you going?”

 

Pidge shoved his hands in his pocket, a smile spreading across his lips. “We’ll drive around looking for adventures… there’s a gay event in a town next to here, tonight… you wanna go?”

 

Lance looked at Keith who was already nodding. He threw his arm around his friend, _no._ His boyfriend, he corrected himself with satisfaction before he nodded at Pidge.

 

“Lead the way.”

 

The girl smile.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance already knew that everything around him was about to change again as the edges of reality began to blur. He stared at Keith, averting his eyes as the boy looked at him. His eyes caught Hunk’s ones on him.

  


“Yes,” Pidge said, “I was right. These realities are about you both. I’m totally not surprised.”

 

“How can you not be surprised?” He lied, folding his arms. “I totally am.”

 

“You form the right side of Voltron, and even if you insist that you don’t, you two had a good time and you know how to work together, so no, I’m not surprised.”

 

“She has a point.” Shiro agreed, Lance just walked away from them not wanting to hear anything else related to him and Keith together. Everything around him began to disappear, but not long enough to keep Hunk from approaching him and placing a friendly hand on his shoulder, trying to remove the tension built up in his body.

 

“Are you okay, Lance?” The big guy asked, worried, reminding him of the years in the Garrison.

 

Lance knew his friend’s real concern, but all he could do was shrug his shoulders with false disinterest. How could he really answer something like that?

 

As his vision began to fade and Hunk’s hand could no longer be felt by him, the blue paladin couldn’t help cursing— not for the last time— his stupid heart for deciding to fall in love with Keith Kogane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love comments so don't be ashamed and tell me everything that's on your minds @0@
> 
> The songs used in this chapter as:
> 
> Vance Joy - Riptide  
> Sheppard - Geronimo  
> Bastille - Pompeii  
> Radical Face - Welcome Home, son  
> Phillip Phillips - Gone, Gone, Gone  
> American Author - Best Day of My Life  
> Charlie Puth - Done for Me  
> Britney Spears - Work Bitch  
> Little Mix - Power  
> Rihanna -S&M
> 
> <3


	4. Prostitution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> READ THIS IS IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!
> 
> Okay, this chapter contains some scenes that CAN MAKE YOU UNFORGETTABLE, have non-graphic scenes of sexual violence BUT even if it makes you uncomfortable: DON'T READ !!!!
> 
> Another important thing: there is smut but it is not explicit and it is just a small snippet (I would write smut ?? No. Simply because I don't know how, but if anyone has any ideas and wants to write, okay, but NOTICE ME FIRST.
> 
> In the "smut" our paladins don't see the action happening, they just disappear when things start to get hot :) after all, that would be too embarrassing for our darlings. Anyway, that's it. <3<3
> 
> (Sorry for any grammar error)

 

 

Lance was laying upside down on the couch, flipping through channels with little interest, when the apartment door opened and a moody Keith walked in. Sitting up straight, he watched as the raven-haired boy threw his backpack on the floor and rid himself of his clothes, leaving only his red boxers on, as he walked toward him before throwing himself onto Lance’s lap.

 

Lance let out a quiet chuckle, leaning down to press a quick kiss to the boy’s forehead, feeling him shudder and hiding his warm face in his neck. Lance turned his blue eyes toward the dull commercials on the TV, wrapping an arm around Keith’s bare shoulders and burying his long fingers in the thick strands of his hair.

 

“Tough day?” He asked, holding back a chuckle as the other snarled, lips brushing against his skin as he replied with dismay.

 

“You have no idea. A customer spilled sauce on my apron, it’s gonna be stained for days now,” He lifted his head, looking directly at Lance. Keith’s face contorted into a grimace. “And the worst part is that it stinks. I don’t know how many times I’ll have to wash it just for that horrible smell come out.”

 

Lance squeezed Keith’s thigh sympathetically, hand moving up and down the other’s skin in a gentle caress. His eyes turned back to the TV. “Well… since we’re talking about bad things…” He began, watching the other’s expression become gloomy. “It’s not a big deal! It’s just… Hm, we have no more Netflix.”

 

Keith huffed, throwing his bangs back, moving against Lance while he held him tightly so he wouldn’t fall. “It was obvious this would happen at some point. We didn’t pay the bill.”

 

Lance pouted. “It’s still cruel. Who would leave two college kids without Netflix on a Saturday night?” Lance shook his head with irony, his hand returning to caress Keith’s skin absentmindedly. “They are terrible.”

 

Keith smiled, eyes crinkling as he stared at him. “Are you saying that if you were in their shoes you wouldn’t demand that we pay the bill?”

 

Lance snorted, glancing at the boy with a crooked smile. “I’d be generous.”

 

Keith squeezed Lance’s shoulders, hands trailing the tan skin to cup his face tenderly, thumbs caressing his smooth cheeks. “Of course, Mr. Lawyer. Anything else to say?”

 

“Yes,” He whispered, bringing the other boy closer and moving him to face him, legs on either side of his waist.

 

“Yeah?” Keith laughed, violet eyes sparkling with amusement and even a little embarrassment. “And what is it?”

 

Lance squeezed Keith’s thighs, smirking at the sight of the boy jumping in surprise. Lance brought his face closer to the other boy, nose caressing the other’s cheek as he spoke with absolute conviction, “you are so pretty, Keith.”

 

He watched as Keith’s cheeks flushed a deep red in less than two seconds. He let out a low, warm chuckle as he saw the pout forming on the shorter boy’s lips when he realized that Lance was laughing at him. Keith grunted, turning his face to the side and crossing his arms over his chest, trying to show false authority.

 

“Shut up,” He complained about no real bite in his tone. Lance’s laughter died slowly in his throat, luminous blue eyes watching with fascination the reflected light from the window dye Keith’s dark hair a deep blue and his eyes a neutral gray. Keith must have noticed his lack of response and looked at him, cheeks blushing even more at the look of complete fascination in the other’s eyes.

 

“What?” He asked shyly, afraid to speak too loudly and ruin whatever was happening at the moment. Lance just shook his head, not knowing how to answer, raising his hands to the soft skin before him, stroking it gently until one hand stopped at the other’s hip bone and the other on his pale neck, letting his fingers dig into the mullet. A soft smile spread on his face.

 

“Nothing much,” He murmured quietly, eyeing Keith’s body, absorbing what he could in the dim light of the room, allowing himself to feel the other’s chills under his fingertips and the weight of his body on his lap.

 

They hadn’t gotten very far in their relationship. The farthest they’ve gone was a hot kiss in the bathroom of a nightclub two days ago after a brief moment of jealousy from Lance. Keith was shy and Lance knew it. Even though the boy tried to hide it behind a facade of eternal moodiness, Lance knew better, he had the opportunity to see all of Keith’s phases as they shared a dorm, only to fall for him a week later. It wasn’t easy at first, Keith was too quiet, locked inside himself and not letting anyone else in, but after a few months he let Lance in, taking him on dates – _some of them in his own kitchen –_  and talking about his difficult relationship with his father, while Lance told him about his big family.

 

Keith said he wanted to be a teacher.

 

Lance talked about his desire to be a great lawyer in order to help people.

 

_ “There are other ways to help people, Lance,” Keith had once said as they sat on the couch watching Netflix, popcorn scattered all over the floor. “Like setting up an NGO, donating all your money to charity or teaching people…” _

 

_ Lance smirked. “Which is exactly what you’re going to do.” _

 

_ “Which is exactly what I’m going to do,” Keith agreed, throwing some popcorn into his mouth. _

 

At that time, they were nothing more than friends watching a movie, and now they were something they were both yet to name due to fear of making everything awkward. He turned his eyes to Keith’s face, watching his thick lashes brush against his cheeks as he blinked, teeth sunk into his lower lip like he always did when he was nervous, as the blush spread across his neck and chest.

 

Lance’s thumb touched Keith’s lip, pulling it from his teeth and letting the tip of his nail follow the line of his mouth. Slowly, as to not scare the other boy, Lance came closer, taking Keith’s lower lip between his teeth and pulling into his mouth, swallowing Keith’s little moan. Hands touched his cheeks and fingers tangled into his short brown hair, nails scratching his scalp and making him shudder. That made Lance sure he could move forward, lips moving against Keith’s and pulling the boy closer until his bare torso was touching the thin fabric of his shirt. Keith parted his lips, allowing Lance to explore him slowly and determined, feeling his long fingers tighten on the pale skin and leaving marks.

 

Keith made a simple movement with his hip on Lance’s lap, making the boy moan against his lips. Lance let his lips move away from Keith’s to follow the skin of his cheeks, then down his chin where he bit his pale skin causing the other boy to gasp. His hands returned to Keith’s hips as he moved up to meet his hesitant movements, licking and sucking the boy’s neck. Keith closed his eyes and threw his head back, legs tightening around Lance’s waist and hands clutching his short hair. Lance moved his hip up the moment Keith came down, making him let out a strangled cry.

 

_“Lance…”_ Keith’s broken voice asked, and Lance knew what that meant. He took a deep breath, stopping all his movements and taking some time to think, gathering himself as he felt Keith stop moving above him, then hiding his face in Lance’s neck, hot and quick breaths reaching the sensitive skin of his throat and arms wrapping around his neck.

 

“Sorry,” The dark-haired boy murmured, not lifting his face from where he was hiding, words muffled by the fabric of the other’s shirt. Lance just smiled, arms wrapping around him even tighter.

 

“It’s okay,” He reassured, pressing his face against the boy’s dark locks. He could still feel his hard-on pressed uncomfortably against Keith. He just ignored it, concentrating completely on the boy in his arms. “When you're ready, kitten.”

 

He felt Keith’s smile on his skin and that was more than enough for him. Lance brought his hands to the other’s hair, fingers digging into the soft strands before pulling him gently away from him, seeing Keith’s flushed face and suspiciously bright eyes. Lance kissed him softly on the forehead, on both cheeks, on the tip of his nose, and finally on his lips, taking longer on the latter.

 

“All sweet kisses for you, Keith,” And that was enough for the tension to breaking over Keith’s embarrassed laughter.

 

“Moron,” He said fondly. His index finger tracing invisible lines on Lance’s cheek as he looked at it under his lashes, lips twitching in an attempt to hide his smile.

 

“Your moron,” Lance replied, putting a dark strand of hair behind Keith’s ear and pulling him in for another quick kiss on the forehead.

 

Keith shook his head, bangs swaying and almost hiding his wonderful eyes and pink cheeks. “I have to take a shower,” He said, rising from Lance’s lap, complaining as the taller boy squeezed his thigh.

 

“You really need it.”

 

“Shut up.”

 

“I can smell you from here.”

 

All Keith did was flip him the bird before closing the bathroom door. Lance stared at the wooden door for a few minutes before shaking his head, trying to clear his head from the cute and handsome boy that had been sitting on him a few seconds ago before and focusing on something else very important, like the lack of cookies in the kitchen. Just to confirm his melancholy thoughts, he searched the kitchen for his tasty donuts just to have his hopes destroyed. He opened the refrigerator.

 

“Keith, we’re out of the strawberry jam!” He shouted towards the bathroom. “And of donuts, too!”

 

"See if there's popcorn!" Came the shouted response, almost muffled by the bathroom door and the sound of water. Lance searched for the wonderful microwave popcorn just to find none. At this point, he would not even be more surprised if he did not find half the things he was addicted to, – having almost 100% of his time focused on eating what he saw while studying did not leave much room for further thoughts, like what to eat on a weekend –

 

"We're out of it, too." he breathed.

 

The bathroom door opened, warm steam coming out in waves and dissipating as it came in contact with the cool air of the room. A Keith dressed in a black shirt and striped pajamas trousers walked to the kitchen, black hair dripping as he looked curiously at the almost empty refrigerator over Lance's shoulder.

 

"No pie." he finished with regret. He moved away from Lance, hands combing his hair so he could tie them up. "We have two options here: either we go to the all-night store or we just ignore it and go to sleep –

 

Lance moaned woefully with that, putting his hand on his forehead and tossing his head back dramatically.

 

" _– you know we have to get up early tomorrow, Lance_ ," Keith remembered.

 

"I know you do, but you know how we're going to wake up without eating any of it today!" Lance threw his arm over the shortest shoulder and plunged his head into his neck, nose-tickling the sensitive skin beneath his ear. "Let's be so stressed Mullet ... My skin will be in chaos without any of these goodies and imagine what my beauty sleep will be like …”

 

Lance just kept regretting as Keith listened to everything with barely concealed amusement, shuddering as playful teeth nibbled at his skin.

 

"Lance!" He protests, nudging the boy higher up his rib with force to push him away. Lance just laughs, raising his hands in a universal sign of surrender, but his eyes shine with playful malice.

 

“My bad.”

 

Keith just snorts, walking to the shared room to get his coat and wallet, sporting the sneakers anyway without even tying his laces. Lance folds his arms and watches him mockingly leaning against the wall that divided the kitchen room. His blue eyes focus on his pajamas.

 

“Are you going like this?” he smiles. Through the dark fringe, Keith just stares at him unimpressed, a coat tucked into one of his arms as he tries to pack himself, tucking his cell phone and wallet anyway into the pocket of his jacket.

 

"Test me and I’ll leave you hungry."

 

"Awwwn, don’t say that love." Lance throws his arms over the other's shoulders and pulls him to a quick kiss on the pink cheek. "We know you're too sweet for that."

 

“Lance, please, just shut up.” mumbles, pushing him away and almost ran to the door. Lance laugh, flinging himself on the couch sloppily. 

 

“Don’t be late!” he shouts, only to hear a sullen response before the door closes.

 

* * *

 

When the whirlwind of time took them directly to another apartment, Lance almost felt dizzy with the sudden change. Although he liked to brag about his strong adaptation to strange places –making alliances on bizarre planets gave him that experience –, his mind was still trying to get accustomed, trying to associate that reality with the one from which he had just left. _–_

 

_– T_ rying to recover from _'I love you'_ and prevent his useless heart from running or his mind exploding from chaos.  Realizing the many changes from that space to the other – as this was smaller and clearly a simple dormitory, the many books on the shelf, a large, colorful cup serving as a door opens. A large window that almost occupied the entire left wall and the darkness that made the room quieter and calmer.

 

He tried to ignore the pounding of his heart and did not look when Lance and Keith had gotten too excited on the couch. Stubbornly not thinking about the large amount of pale skin that Keith had so blatantly presented to his other self and knowing that it would be impossible to forget how the sound of his name sounded on Keith's lips when he was _–Don’t think that Lance! Bad boy!_

 

Hitting his own head repeatedly to try not to think of anything else how Keith's pale skin seemed so soft under the moonlight that his fingers itched to touch, the hoarse sound of his voice or his low moans or in the ‘ I Love You’ – though he knew that he would never forget it.

 

The blue paladin closed his eyes tightly, breathing hard through his nose to calm the thrill of excitement in his body. He only opened his eyes after making sure he had gathered all his shit and that the others didn’t realize how much he had been affected by it. He didn’t dare look at anyone on the team as he watched Keith close his apartment door, his cheeks extremely flushed.

  
  
  


The paladins watched the dark-haired boy walk quietly between the 24-hour store shelves. Violet eyes watching everything analytically as if looking for something suspicious on each product before putting it in the basket.

 

Hunk walked over to the nearest salted cracker net, eyes glittering with grief as he watched his hand go through the packets. He sniffed. “Why can’t we even eat?”

 

"Why, are you really hungry?" Pidge asked mockingly.

 

"No, but they can’t wait to get me in front of the packets of salty I won’t want to have one."

 

"Well, we can’t do anything to check your belly, big guy."

 

"A very difficult thing to do." he murmured with a beak, stepping away from the salty ones. 

 

Lance walked over to the bookcase, trying to move his index finger carefully to see if he could feel the texture, just to get past it. He sighed, looking up and seeing Keith on the other side. The red paladin followed his other self from behind, arms crossed and face contorted into something unpleasant to see the things that were in the basket.

 

"How can you eat this?" Asked the red paladin with disgust for the other Keith, even though he knew he wouldn’t be heard by his other self. "That will kill your liver."

 

Lance let out an unexpected laugh, bringing the other boy's attention to him. But he didn’t try to explain that in that way, Keith looked more like an angry ghost than anything else, complaining and grumbling to his other self as he followed him like a disgusted phantom of the old life. The red paladin raised an eyebrow at him, a gleam of defiance running through his eyes.

 

Lance waited for the complaint he knew would come whenever Keith caught him mocking him, but the protest never came. Instead, something seemed to catch the boy's attention, making his lips linger on a thin line, frowning in suspicion and purple eyes become icy. Lance followed the look of his teammate and what he saw made him feel a cold shiver down his spine.

 

There were two men watching Keith from that reality from afar. They were tall and large, clad in heavy clothes that conveyed a dangerous air. One was strategically close to the door while the other walked down the aisles, pretending to pick up a few things as his gaze drifted over and over to the Korean boy unfortunately unconnected to his surroundings.

 

Lance knew that the others realized that something was wrong by the tension that built up in their own shoulders and in the way _their_ Keith began to act: whole body tense, hands clenched into fists ready to punch something, the way his whole aura became defensive. Behavior that he took whenever they were about to enter a fight against the Galras.

 

The other Keith walked to the cashier, responding with a small smile as the boy said something funny as he handed the bags. Keith took one last goodbye before heading out into the cold night, the other two men following after a few seconds.

 

_Their_ Keith was the first to move. Passing between the paladins as if it were a furious storm near to knock down everything before him, crossing the door without looking back. Lance followed him. Strain building up in his body like rainwater in a bucket, mind screaming and spinning around everything that could happen if those men reached Keith. _Would it be like the first reality?_ But something said no, _something was very wrong_.

 

The night must have been cold, but Lance felt nothing. The blue paladin hurried down the street, eyes running everywhere trying to see the other men, but they were gone, leaving only _his_ Keith and that reality to be seen. He glanced quickly back, seeing the others follow with urgency, faces contorted in seriousness. 

 

A horrible, ugly feeling spread through Lance's body, muscles starting to ache _–though he knew it was more psychological than anything else –_ due to restlessness in the air, making him more apprehensive. He took a deep breath trying to calm down when he saw Keith –the other Keith, not his – stop at the pedestrian lane, black wires moving in the wind, body huddled against the jacket, red cheeks due to the cold of night and eyes half closed fixed on the floor

 

Hunk stopped beside Lance, panting a little at the brief run. He looked back and forth nervously. "Why does it seem like something bad is about to happen?”

 

“‘Cause it is,” Pidge answered with conviction. Narrowing their eyes. “Those guys didn’t look cool.”

 

Shiro flexed his prosthetic arm uncomfortably and Lance had a slight impression that he wanted to punch something. The blue paladin tried not to freak out and just focused his eyes on Keith, watching the boy of the other reality walk again as he took the phone out of his pocket.

 

They turned a corner, the building where Keith and Lance lived just across the two street lanes.

 

“I don’t have the key, Lance.” says Keith on the phone. A smile twinkling on his face as he heard the other boy's response. “Stops being a lazy beast and comes to open the gate for me. You know how bad this gate is to open from the outside.”

 

The blue paladin watches the other boy inspect both sides of the street before crossing, stopping in the middle of it. The phone still glued to his right ear as he waits for a car to pass. The other Lance must have said something foolish as Keith chuckled, his eyes focused on the building’s lobby seeing a familiar brown hair appear. Lance smiled at Keith as he struggled to open the door.

 

In a second…

  
  
  


...everything changed.

 

The car that Keith was waiting to pass, abruptly stopped in front of him, tires making a horrible sharp sound on the asphalt, and two men jumped out of the vehicle –the same men as before – and moved forward to the petrified boy.

 

Scared, Keith stepped back, bags falling to the floor as the two men fell on him, trying to hold him. He felt an iron grip on his left wrist and a sharp tug and screaming in pain as nails pierced his skin like sharp needles. Keith gasped and fought even harder as strong arms lifted him off the ground, kicking and punching even as his limbs began to hurt. Keith wheezed and fought even harder as strong arms lifted him off the ground, kicking and punching even as his limbs began to ache from exertion. He heard an angry grunt through the cacophony in his ears, opening his eyes to see that he had broken the nose of one of them and bloodstained everywhere

 

The team Voltron watched with bound hands as the men dragged Keith into the car, using his nails to scratch them like a panther defending himself from an enemy. Lance's desperate cries filled the night with Keith's pleas. The Cuban boy beat his wrists against the rusted grids, not caring when small wounds opened on his skin, snarling and cursing as he turned the key hard. Eyes never leaving Keith.

 

Just as the car door slammed shut –locking Keith inside – the gate swung open and Lance ran. The tires sang on the asphalt. Smoke rises as the vehicle sped up, rubber creating stripes burned on the asphalt as the vehicle caught on the stride. Lance managed to touch a small piece of the trunk before it all slipped from his hands like leaves in the wind.

 

He fell forward, grating his knees on the rough ground from the thrust. His eyes widening as he watched Keith slam into the rear window, eyes wide and focused on him. Tears streamed into the corners of his eyes as Keith's lips parted to shout something but a large hand silenced him using a white cloth to silence his screams.

 

_ Breathe in. _

 

Lance rose from the floor. Completely ignoring the pain in his knees. He saw Keith's eyes close and he disappeared into the shadows.

 

_ Breathe out. _

 

The car pulled away and Lance ran.

 

He ran.

 

He ran, knowing the car was faster than him.

 

He ran even as his chest began to ache from his bad breath.

 

He ran even as the muscles in his leg began to burn with effort.

 

He ran even as he watched the car get further _away_ from him.

 

He _kept_ running, even as sweat trickled down his skin, running down his forehead and sticking the strands of his hair.

 

He ran even as the miserable sob left his throat and persisted in the running even as the car followed a bridge that served as the city's motto.

 

He kept running as he cried, forcing his body as hard as he could.

 

He only stopped minutes later, when the car had long since disappeared in the night through the many alleys of the other city. Lance did not care about his tear-stained face, nor how his knee was terribly injured as he dropped to his knees, hands clenched in fists on the cold floor, glazed eyes glued to the same place but without actually seeing.

 

The paladins only watched silently as it took a few moments for a man to approach and a few more for the police to arrive.

 

The other Lance said nothing.

 

Just stood there.

 

Numb.

 

The scene began to change before they even saw if Lance had risen...

 

* * *

 

Her body was numb. Heavy limbs like lead even when he was just trying to breathe, there was a haze lurking in his mind along with a dull ache in the back of his head. Keith frowned a little, not opening his eyes even when he realized that he was lying on a leather stool, the car where he was giving little bumps from time to time.

 

Keith barely suppressed a sob when he finally opened his eyes, seeing everything blurred before he could actually see something in the dark, noticing two figures in the front seat of the car talking among grunts and stressed growls. He tried to swallow the panic rising in his throat and the fear that chilled his bones, even more, when the car finally stopped, one of the guys opening the door and pulling him roughly from the backseat.

 

“Come on, brat.” thereby, the man directed them toward a decaying building with dirt scattered all over the place. Keith shuddered as they entered, seeing how the walls were soiled with a sickly yellow and stained with substances that he was afraid to know what they were. There were some poor people scattered here and there consuming drugs or smoking marijuana.

 

The muscular guy holding his coat dragged him to one of the rooms on the second floor, knocking on the door twice before entering, dragging the boy with him. A surprised sigh came from Keith's lips as he saw his father inside, sitting in the chair in front of a man wearing a sleek gray suit.

 

Dark eyes stared at him with interest. "Good merchandise you have there," he tells Keith's father, his gaze never diverting from the boy. Keith looked from one to the other, frightened.

 

“Dad, “ Keith calls, trying not to mind the full attention of the room facing him. “What’s going on? Why are we here?” He asked, but the man averted his eyes in shame.

 

“You’re here, kid, because your father and I made a deal.” Spoke the man presumptuously, taking the cigar from the ashtray and leaning it on his fat lips. Keith tried to meet again the eyes of his dad, who had his head down and looking into his lap, where Keith realized that he held an unknown package

 

“A deal?” he repeated, turning his attention to the mafioso. “What ... what kind of deal?" He asks, not wanting to know the answer because he knew he wouldn’t like it at all.

 

“You see…” the guy says, rising from the chair and skirting the table, standing next to Keith's father and resting his heavy hand on his shoulder, squeezing hard. "Your dear father owed me a lot of money. I, like a man involved with a lot of important business, couldn’t let a rat like him fool me. Could I, John? "He says mockingly at the man who cringed. "How could a rat owe me more than ten thousand dollars?

 

“T-ten thousand d-dollars?” Keith repeated stunned, eyes floating toward his father, body coming out of numbness to an old but familiar feeling of anger. “Ten thousand _fucking_ _dollars_?! Dad… _What the fuck?_

 

“Yeah… and you see, he still came to ask me more, didn’t you, comrade? Spending everything with games and drinks wasn’t enough, was it?” the mafioso opened a predatory smile and looked at Keith, "Did he say he lost the house? We had a meeting last week, but that didn’t stop him from spending what he didn’t have.” the man's eyes went cold. "I have to show my influence, I couldn’t let him pull a fast one on me. So I gave him two options, either he paid me or he was going to win so much he couldn’t get up ... And well, didn’t the bastard think of something?

 

Keith swallowed as he felt those eyes on him. a lump had formed in his throat preventing him from speaking and his hands trembled wildly. He felt as if his life was ending there.

 

"How about this ... to repay the debt, he sold me his son ... isn’t that a wonderful thing?"

 

Keith’s heart stopped.

 

“You _did what?!”_ gasped Keith at his father, watching his dark eyes fill with tears. There would be a time when Keith could not bear to see his father cry, so he would sit next to him, hug him and say that _everything would be fine, that his addiction would pass and that they would find a way –,_ that same feeling arose now, but faded into a dark form of _betrayal_. Strongest betrayal than the time he found out that his father was cheating him to get money to keep his addictions, lying to him, stealing his things, his _mother's_ things.

 

“I’m _so_ sorry.” says the man who one day he called father.

 

“No! _You aren’t!”_ Keith burst out, raw throat as he continued, "You're a liar! You never cared if you were hurting me or not, you never did!”

 

A raw sob came out of his throat, feeling strong hands grip his arms tightly, marking his skin. His chest ached as if something were pressing him, squeezing it to powder. Tears streamed down his eyes, his body losing strength as anger left him empty as if he'd simply given up fighting. And he had.

 

“How can you do that?! _H-how… you were-”_ Keith stammered, still trying hard to understand. _Why did he do that? Why did he sell his own son?_ But Keith knew he shouldn’t be surprised. He fucking knew he couldn’t trust his father anymore, but he still wanted to keep that bit of hope that had been in him since the day he left the house… _and he didn’t know it until now._

 

"Ten thousand dollars for the possession of his son.” came the voice of the mafioso as if he hadn’t noticed the boy’s sadness. Or rather, he knew and _liked_ it. “He knew we were already watching you. Boys like you are a rarity, you know?” he bit the tip of his cigar before smiling. “... small, pretty, pretty dark hair and _those purple eyes…”_ Keith cringed as he listened to the dark malice in those last words, keeping his watery eyes totally focused on the floor even as the man approached him.

 

“I already have buyers.”

 

Keith raised his head at this. “B-Buyers?” stammered, thick tears of fear streaming down his cheeks. The man ran his large hands down Keith's cheeks, one of his fingers brushing his lower lip. If Keith hadn’t been feeling so exhausted physically and emotionally, he would have moved away.

 

Those filthy, greasy fingers ran down the black strands of her hair almost like a caress. Keith bit the inside of his cheek hard to try to stop himself from shuddering. “Yeah…” He says almost solemnly as he pulls the boy's face to see his bright indigo eyes. "A really rare piece that will give me lots of money."

 

With a last squeeze on Keith's cheek, he turned to his henchmen saying, "You can take him.”

 

A short cry came from between Keith's lips as the men pulled him up at his feet. His eyes flew to his father angrily.

 

"You _should be_ my father," he growls in an angry whisper, feeling hands clench his wrists and tie him.

 

“Son…” says John in a trembling voice.

 

“I’m _not_ your son,” Keith says between his teeth, hearing the sound of a lid opening and he knew exactly what it was, but he focused all his fury, sadness and betrayal in his eyes and voice. Wanting to hurt that man as he had wounded him. "I'm not your son and you're not my father. You… you - _I don’t know you_. I never did.”

 

His voice broke in that. He knew he was acting too quiet for what he knew would happen, but he was so tired. He was happy before. He was happy with his life, even if he lived in a decadent building where the gate jammed all the time but _it was his life_ and he _liked it._ But now he lost everything, he lost the terrible lessons on Monday morning, lost the neighbor's incredible candies from the side of his apartment and lost all the insoluble foods he insisted on buying, but worse than that, he lost _Lance_. Lance, his stupid boyfriend who always made him smile and play, who never complained when Keith said he was not ready, Lance drowning his fears with kisses and hugs and caresses and pampering.

 

Keith sniffed quietly, eyes still on his father's when something was pressed into his nose and mouth. He took a deep breath, breathing that strange scent for the second time that day, feeling his body relax in the arms of some bandit in _someplace_. He even tried to fight against forced drowsiness, but it was a lost fight when his eyes began to close and the cloth had already been removed from his face, Keith made a point of saying the words as clearly and as loudly as possible to the one who a day he called his father.

 

“I hate you.”

 

Then there was nothing else.

 

* * *

 

Restless blue eyes wandered around, seeing large padded red chairs spread elegantly around. The place wasn’t very large but it was very luxurious, there was a chandelier embroidered with fine shiny glass that left the room with an air of sobriety and mystery, some candles were hung on the walls in a uniform and charming, leaving the place darker and with an inviting air.

 

There was a small circular stage in front of a large, wide wine-colored curtain where one could see the stage perfectly independent of the room in which it was _–so much so that he and the others were in the corner of the room._ Rich and pompous men, wearing expensive suits and absurd accessories, happily filled themselves with wine and champagne, settling in their chairs as they spoke in low voices, eyes occasionally staring at the still empty stage.

 

_“Please.”_ came the muffled Shiro’s whisper at his side. Bright eyes open and focused totally on the stage when people began to be sold, mostly still teenage, all stumbling on their feet and dressed in suggestive fashion when it was geared up on stage to be shown to the rich audience, being sold by those who they gave more money.

 

“This’s trafficking in people for…” Pidge doesn’t finish the phrase of so much horror that it feels, eyes filling with angry tears but not pouring them. She swallows and says in an almost inaudible tone. “Sexual purposes.”

 

A sore sound escapes through Shiro's throat and there's a gasp at his side as the other Keith staggers precariously to the stage wearing only short black shorts, long socks and a lace bra, his black hair is messy and cluttered in a confused way, his cheeks and lips were red as well as the most naked part of her usually pale skin, her eyes were diffused and tearful _and it_ gave him such a _sexually fucked look_ that it made Lance feel disgusted with those people and want to punch someone. _How could they do this to anyone?_

 

He doesn't look at Shiro when the men start throwing their bids. Trying not to listen the triumphant sound when a man in his 50s buys the boy as if it were some merchandise, smiling and drinking and eyes shining with such malice that makes the Cuban boy want to vomit when seeing his eyes following the other boy.

 

Lance bites his lower lip hard enough to sting, his eyes half-watered as he looks at the others quickly, watching as Pidge's tiny form curls up and almost hide in the large structure of Hunk that has the most serious expression Lance ever saw him do it. He swallows before looking at Shiro and feeling his heart clench at the leader's desolate look as if he were physically injured and _torn_.

 

“Keith…” the leader says in a broken sound, approaching the other boy totally shrunken in himself, arms wrapped around him as if that were to protect him from everything there, teeth clenching his lower lip tightly and eyebrows contorted in eyes staring the ground with a mighty ardor. But even though the dark strands of his hair capped most of his expression, Lance knew he wanted to cry, that he was about to break.

 

Shiro kept moving closer until his arms were around the smaller boy. "That didn’t happen, Keith," he says in a welcoming tone. “You are still here. We are Paladins of Voltron.”

 

The air around them changes but not quickly, just showing flashes of events that Lance is sure he is the only one to notice. He hears Shiro comforting the red paladin and Hunk hiding Pidge in himself while Lance sees the man leading Keith to another country, the building where the boy is left with another twenty other immigrants.

 

_"If you fight is worse,"_ a girl tells Keith firmly, but no less sympathetic. She runs her hand over the boy's wet face, pulling her dark hair from her forehead to look him in the eye. There were only two of them in the hotel room. _"I can make it less bad for you by the time they get there.”_

 

Keith shakes his head fiercely, broken sobs coming out of his aching body from the beating he had taken while trying to escape. The girl in front of him grabs his face hard forcing him to stare at her.

 

_“They didn’t pity you.”_  She says furiously, almost rage _."They don’t care who you are or where you came from, they just want sex and they won’t care if it means they'll have to tear you in half for that."_ Her nails dig into Keith's cheeks to make them red. _"They won’t take their time to take care of and take it easy ... they will take it anyway and it will hurt like a bitch. So if you don’t want to bleed all night, you'll have to let me do this.”_

 

_“I-I don’t w-want.”_ stammering looking at her desolate. _“I-I-I  d-don’t want t-this...”_

 

The girl swallows as she runs her fingertips through Keith's dark strands tenderly, eyes lost in unpleasant memories. _"I can only help to make it less bad... I'm sorry dear."_

 

“Don’t look, Keith.” says Shiro putting himself in front of the red paladin so he couldn’t see anything that happened. His eyes flutter to the other paladins almost desperately until they stop specifically at Lance. _“Don’t look at this_.”

 

But Lance didn’t listen like the others. He just stayed terribly petrified while the other Keith lay on the bed still crying, clutching vigorously on the pillow and plunging his face there as the girl filled her fingers with lube and opened him. His cries getting louder and even struggling that the girl tried to reassure him.

 

_Change it,_ begged Lance desperately for any being who was seeing them at that moment, _Please change!_ Because even if he wanted to close his eyes or look away he couldn’t – _he couldn’t see Keith like that and he couldn’t– couldn’t look away– he didn’t want to see more–_

 

_Please, Please change it_ , tears streamed down his eyes but he didn’ notice, just kept praying until the image and Keith's tearful cries dissolved into colorful spots and strange shapes so the paladins were seeing Keith anymore, but rather the other Lance and his life trajectory, his leaving of the law school before ending and looking for a police academy.

 

The apartment he shared with Keith had a wall filled with only pictures of people. Colored lines connecting one place to another and people, disappearance and deaths dates. Keith’s photo was fixed on one of the dates and above was the word: missing / taken. Lance constantly took that photo and watched it for minutes before resuming doing what he was doing

 

He enlisted for special forces, passing the course as the best sniper that the academy ever had and getting a direct pass to one of the country's best defense and investigative departments, The Marmoran.

 

And all this time, he never stopped looking.

 

* * *

 

Looking through the high-precision sights the superb shape as his target paced back and forth in his apartment while talking on the phone almost made him pull the trigger before receiving his order. He breathed in slowly and deeply to maintain his posture, hands completely standing on his rifle and long fingers itching to _pull the trigger and kill that son of a bitch._

 

Nando Octávio Reis. That was the target’s name. Reis was a man of 38 years addicted to expensive drinks and women, had more than 20 thousand dollars accumulated per day in his safe due to its great entertainment company. On the outside, he is like every little playboy in New York, but in the shadows, he was just another guy invested in drug trafficking and slave labor of immigrant children.

 

Licking her dry lips, Lance didn’t move from his position lying on the terrace of a building 500m from his target. Frowning, he ignored the discomfort of his position, choosing to list all the stupid things the man was talking on the phone without knowing that it was being clipped and Pidge's grumpy grunts in his ear.

 

_“The idiot just confessed everything,"_   the girl says sarcastically. Lance's lips lift into a half smile.

 

"Does that mean I'm ready to shoot?" He asked mockingly, listening to Pidge snort for fun.

 

_ “I know how much you want to shoot him but wait just five minutes until Hunk can put something together. We don’t want his friends to find out it was murder, right? " _

 

Lance rolls his eyes, "That's a shame. So… the bomb in the warehouse, was he or wasn’t? "He asks, seeing Reis lean against the window with a big, shit smile. It would be so easy to shoot him now...

 

_ “Yes. Him and two of our suspects tried to eliminate the evidence from the bodies, but obviously, it did not work very well. It's all recorded and filed in Central.” _

 

“Good. And where is Allura?”

 

_ "Something came up and she had to check ... I don’t know what it is but it seems to be serious... even Shiro went with her.” _

 

“Pretty.” tease him. Pidge huffed, the sound of his fingers flying through the keyboards echoing over the earphone

 

_“Okay, you can shoot him now._ ” Then he does, shooting directly at the bastard's head.

 

\--------

 

The first thing he notices upon arriving at the department is that Pidge and Hunk are strangely standing next to his desk. Okay, he understood Hunk since they spent most of the day together, but Pidge was a surprise, usually, she was too busy typing desperately on her computer to have social moments.

 

The second thing is that her expression is entirely serious and even hesitant. Hunk at his side looked worried, looking from Pidge to Lance nervously. _Pidge never gets nervous._

 

“Wh–

 

“They found him.” interrupted Pidge abruptly. Lance just blinks and looks at Hunk inquisitively, watching his friend shift from one leg to another.

 

“Who?” he asks, taking a step toward Hunk, knowing that he couldn’t keep silent. Hunk looks at Pidge but Lance enters his vision. “Who is it, Hunk?”

 

“ _His_ father.” says Pidge. Lance turns to look at her, wide-eyed blue eyes. The girl looks directly at him. “They found him this morning. We didn’t tell you anything because you were on a mission–

 

“Where is him?” he interrupts coarsely, his voice almost catching in his suddenly dry throat and heart pounding in his chest.

 

“Lance, buddy–” Hunk puts his hand on his shoulder but Lance pushes him away, head screaming _Keith Keith Keith Keith!_

 

“No, Hunk. I need… need– Pidge. _Where_?”

 

Pidge straightens her body and Lance notices how nervous she is.

 

“Allura and Shiro took him to interrogation room Three to two o'clock.” Pidge hadn’t even finished when Lance started toward the living room, breathing quick and heavy between his lips, heart throbbing hard in his chest, hands opening and closing _sweaty_. Unconsciously he knows that others are following him but he can’t care. He waited for it for _so long_. He looked in many places and had no luck. With Keith gone, Lance invested his search for his father, but the man had also disappeared. Now with him there _– finally –_ he would know something. _Anything –_

 

He doesn’t knock on the door when he gets to it and simply ignores his friends' warnings as he invades the room, blinking a little because of low light. His blue eyes focus on the thick dark glass that separates him from the other part of the room. Feeling his heart take a triple jump before stopping –

 

John was old. Battered. His eyes sank into the rough, stained skin of his face and his body was much thinner than normal. Almost skeletal. Lance would have cared more about the man if the words he heard next had not hit him like a slap.

 

_“You sold your only child to pay off a debt._ " Shiro says to the man, a hard voice echoing through the cold room. Frowning hard, robotic hand opening and closing in an attempt to punch nothing when the other nodded.

 

Then Lance saw red.

 

He didn’t know how, but when he came back to himself he was holding the collar of the man who had once been his friend's father, a fist raised to punch the mother's bloody face before they brushed him away. John was writhing on the floor, a sickly mixture of blood and teeth grinding the white floor in front of Allura's bright red heels, crying and stammering uncontrollable excuses, a trembling body in the middle of the room.

 

But Lance had none of that, he squirmed in Shiro's grip.

 

“You son of a bitch! Bastard! How could you? "He exclaimed. "He tried to take care of you. He cared about you and you sold him! I will kill you!”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“No!” Lance pushed away from Shiro. Walking to the miserable man on the floor, punctuating every word with his steps. “Where. Is. he.”

 

John shook his head. Saliva and blood staining his shirt, swollen and broken lips as well as part of his face. “He didn’t tell me.”

 

“He?”

 

“Bernard Gerard.” says Allura for the first time with her arms folded across her chest and looking at Lance seriously. “Better known as The Bigger. He is a thief and also a loan shark. It works as offerer and debit remover and elimination of people,  he is also responsible for finding goods to be sold to big people.”

 

“Rich people who can’t have their names involved in human trafficking," offered Shiro. His eyes fall on the man before them with no trace of pity so characteristic of him. “–or anything related to the underworld.”

 

Lance looked at the man at his feet in disgust, crouching in front of him and completely ignoring when the man cringed. “How much owed you?

 

John swallowed without looking up. “T-Ten thousand dollars.”

 

The Cuban exhaled hard, closing his eyes tightly to control his anger as the man told them what had happened. The Bigger was already eyeing Keith before he moved with Lance to college, about how his addiction was harder to care for after his son left. He talked about the games and the loans, the punches he got when he answered that he had no money and The Bigger made him a proposal where he readily accepted that if he won in the card game, he would have his debts forgotten, but if he lost, they would take his son.

 

At the end of the speech, Lance was about to hit the shit out of the guy again, but only a touch of Allura on his shoulder stopped him. Faintly fragile fingers gripped him with the strength of three men.

 

“H-He said there were already buyers, "cried Jhon looking at them deplorably. “That he would be well-taken c-care of–

 

Unable to hear more, Lance rose from the floor and abruptly left the room, making strides and heavy steps away from that place while his mind was directed in a thousand different ways. None of them with a good ending. He stopped in front of Pidge, noticing the computer in his skillful hands.

 

"I've started the searches," She said with determination. Lance almost smiled, but just nodded. Sharp brown eyes pierced him fiercely. “We’ll find him.”

 

And Lance would be sure of that.

 

* * *

  
  


The search lasted for months. The Blue paladin knew this because the air around them shifted and rotated steadily and dizzily, mixing colors, sounds, and smells. Often the paladins saw the other Lance work on his quest with an angry fervor, doing his job quickly and cleanly only to be able to return to Pidge's side or look for clues hidden in the old Keith files –these being stamped as Unselected. No suspects or alibis;

 

Then something changed. 

 

It should be another incessant day at Marmoran Corporation. The Voltron team stood in the middle of one of the restrooms like ghosts, seeing the palpable tension in Macclean's muscles leaning against the wall and staring through the window without paying attention – or ignoring – the worried looks that Hunk, Shiro and Allura threw in his way when a shriek of triumph ran through the air and the next second a messy Pidge invaded the room with the computer in hand and said the words that cut the air like a whip.

 

“I found him.” Macclean let out a heavy exhalation as he stared at his workmate, speechless.

 

“I extended the searches to all other continents including South America and parts of Asia to try to find any traces of the places where The Bigger does his business and found that his biggest buyer is a man named Sendak, he is a businessman of great prestige and currently lives here in New York. he owns many famous clubs in which he placed his adopted son, Lotor, as the owner before investing in the insurance sector and loans as well as the creation of international banks.”

 

Pidge looked at the others, expression completely closed. "I did some deeper research and found documents proving that he was in a 'Fundraising Event' a few years ago in the city next to yours." She looked directly at Lance. "This _event_ happened the day after Keith Kogane's kidnap and his trip to the police station. There are documents from this day that show that he made a purchase of more than $ 19,000 on a _pet..._  " Pidge spits in disgust. "... with black hair and vibrant violet eyes.”

 

She put the papers on the table for the others to see, but Lance didn’t move. "He gave him to his son Lotor two years after his purchase as a reward for his magnificent administration at the luxurious nightclubs located in Las Vegas."

 

Shiro frowned at the reports. "It says the clubs contains brothels?" He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Pidge

 

"This is called Luxury Brothel and is within the clubs. Only the regulars willing to pay a lot have a free pass ... well, except on days marked _Happy Day_ where prostitutes are open to the public. "

 

Allura glanced over the papers before looking at Pidge. "Do you know where to find him then?

 

Pidge straightened, eyes drifting from Lance to the others. "He's at one of seven Lotor nightclubs in Vegas.”

 

"So we have to look at each one of them," Shiro says in a purposeful tone until his eyes bump into the silent cop at his side. Everyone looked at the Cuban man, seeing his expression incredibly indecipherable. "You don’t have to go if that's going to hurt you, Lance.”

 

“No.” he says in a hard voice, cold blue eyes shining with devastating determination. "I'm going.”

 

Allura sighed."This may jeopardize the investigation–”

 

“I’m _going_.” Then Lance just nods hard to himself before picking up the gun that rested on the table and put it in the holster of his leg. “What we waiting for?”

 

Pidge smiled a lively smile for the first time that day. "I already bought our tickets, we'll leave tomorrow morning.”

 

“Great.” Allura nods to the others. "Pack your things, we’ll continue this investigation at Blade. I’ll make you aware of our goal. For now, you are dismissed.”

\-------

 

“I don’t see much difference from here to Marmora. " whispered Hunk to the other paladins seconds after time to leave them in another room. This much larger and more classic than the other. Lance's blue eyes gravitated to his other selves who had already settled in The Blade and were now preparing to check out one of Lotor's seven Clubs, agreeing to check one per night until his options were over.

 

Lance let himself look at his other older self minutely. Seeing the lines of concern stamped around his eyes even with his carefully blank face, thin lips in a hard line even though his blue eyes – colder than the ice itself – showed all the restlessness the agent felt inside.

 

They don’t find Keith that night. Neither five nights in a row.

 

* * *

 

They say you only find what you're really looking at the last place you thought of going to.

 

The Macclean stared at the luxurious black building in front of him, feeling no less than agitated at that moment. He tried to hide the whole furious storm of conflicting feelings in a carefully neutral expression, feeling the comforting warmth of Shiro by his side and Pidge's low voice on the communicator in his right ear. He ignored the gigantic line at the front entrance and just followed Shiro's lead into the rich establishment.

 

Even though he had done this at other nightclubs during the week, it was hard to stifle the craving he felt as well as the alarming amount of anxiety filling his veins tonight. The thought of _It’s the last place to find Keith_ repeated in his mind every few seconds, not giving him rest.

 

He looked at the exotic decoration of the place as they walked toward the bar and sat on a bench giving him a wide view of space. Small green lights came down from the ceiling like little fireflies, the round tables were all well spread out and toward the stage. There were some red blood sofas that had the full view of the stage even taking their own personal mini stage for private dances.

 

Lance cataloged every space in that place minutely, seeing a side staircase right next to the second-floor bar that was open, letting people up there see the show below. He also noticed a glass room almost hidden in the darkness, also on the second floor right in front of the stage, where there were only three men watching everything, one of them with long white hair and sharp eyes sitting comfortably in a velvet armchair.

 

“Lotor is here.” says the Shiro’s low voice at his side, eyes probing the other man for a few moments before drifting away, fingers tapping slowly into the whiskey cup in his robotic hand.

 

_“It's the VIP room.”_ Pidge commented on the comm _“Only those who are associated with him enter.”_

 

The Cuban man runs his gaze around the place again, searching and prowling as much as he can, his eyes ignoring the costumed dancers who roamed the place and focus on the main stage where a stripper with a mini cinderella’s skirt rotated in pole dance, full breasts and beautiful on display for the public to see. Crystal-shaped mini lights made the stage shine in blue colors, painting the woman's skin in brilliant shades of blue.

 

Lance held his breath, trying not to think that this could be the last place they would look before they have to go back to Marmoran and think of a next step. He tried not to let a bitter taste build up in his mouth and just pushed the thought away.

 

The woman on the stage walked gracefully away from the audience, disappearing between the thick curtains of wine in long and graceful steps, the light falling to a dark take over and the music changed to a darker and heavier. He noticed the abrupt change in the air as well as Shiro, as the other man shifted in his seat, wrinkling his eyebrows while the male audience began to stir.

 

A single light came out from behind the stage, showing a cage where a dark form hid in the shadows. Lance forced his eyes on what would undoubtedly be the best-known stripper in the place –if the disgusting whistles and compliments did not say something revealing. The dark shape, in what Lance could see now was a man, moved softly through the cage, thin fingers adorned with silver rings caressing the metal that held him while his long, thick legs hidden in black socks moved like waves over the thin black heel. A thin, short was the only thing that hid her intimate parts, leaving a bare torso, where only thin lines of black lace imitated a bra, leaving her rosy, hard nipples free.

 

_ Nowhere to run, run, run, come here right now _

_ Here right now, here right now _

_ There’s only one thing that I wanna feel right now _

 

The stripper didn’t once raise his face to the audience, even if the cat mask covered his face. Thick hair _that Lance could not see if they were deep blue or black as raven_ fell across his face and swayed freely with each step he took, muscles of his back moving under pale skin as he turned his back to the audience and stretched his arm to grabbing the pole in the center of the cage, lifting one leg to the heavy rhythm of the song and holding it to the rod and pulling the body for a powerful turn, throwing the other leg to hold it while arching the rest of the body down, thin fingers making way down his pale throat.

 

_ You are over my skin, I’m anxious _

_ Paint my body boy, I’ll be your talent _

 

When the dancer was upside down and opened his eyes to the audience, Lance felt his heart go out through his mouth and all his nerve endings stopped working, the pessimistic and depressing voices in his mind for once shut up and his lips opened in shock. The stripper pulled himself up, moving his body sinfully before returning to the floor, black heel glittering and hip following hypnotically each step he took to the front of the cage, squeezing the bars tightly and bringing the body to the floor as he spread his legs, rolling his ass in an explicit demonstration of what he could do with his body.

 

Lance's mouth was dry and his eyes were strangely tearless as he saw the one who was his best friend, _his near – probable – boyfriend_ , clutching at the cage, stroking it as he lowered his body in powerful movements calculated to the rhythm of strong beat, throwing his head back while moving the body forward, as if having sex with someone at that time. Hair falling like dark cascades behind him turning it into something extremely untouchable and forbidden.

 

_ One look and you're mine, keep your eyes on me now _

_ 'Cause once the stars align, you will bring the beast out _

 

Keith looked abruptly forward, forehead leaning against the railing and large dark violet eyes gleaming between thick black strands, thin fingers gripping the edge of the mask and plucking her cheek gracefully, revealing red cheeks, sweaty skin, and a red tongue over wet and sinful lips.

 

A strangled noise escaped the back of Lance's throat and was promptly swallowed by the sound of the song. Far away, he could feel the worried look of Shiro on him and even the call of Pidge in his ear, but his whole vision was totally focused on the one who once was a boy and now he was a completely different man than once thought of becoming.

 

Bile threatened to rise in his throat when reality suddenly struck him. See how Keith moved his body to seduce customers, watched as hungry eyes watched him move like fully drugged men. _A prostitute._ The sweet, shy boy Keith had been a day had completely gone and given away to someone who Lance didn’t know and it _hurts_. It hurts not to know him anymore. It hurt when he lost him all those years ago and it still hurts like a deep and terrible open wound that will never heal even with how many times have you tried to heal. It still hurts not to have him. It hurt so deeply and intensely that Lance thought he couldn’t _breathe_.

 

He wanted to leave. Turn his back or close his eyes and pretend that this was not true, that was just a terrible nightmare or a bad fairy tale that your sister once told him. But he _couldn’t leave,_ Keith was right there!

 

At some point between his vision narrowing to nothing and a sickly desperation flooding every part of his cells, the music ended and the stage light fell into darkness, disappearing the cage and with Keith, leaving behind a thirsty audience for sex and a tormented Cuban agent.

 

\-----

 

“You’ll be okay?” Shiro asks. Lance just nods. After Keith's dance, both Shiro and Pidge suggested that they go out to take a breath as they realized how close to breaking Lance was, knowing that it wouldn’t be good for him to see what was about to happen.

 

At first, Lance was angry, anger so intense and powerful for they suggested he leave after _found_ Keith   _–So many years of intense searching and now Keith was right there and he had to leave ??No. It’s not right. –_ But Lance acknowledged that it wouldn’t be good for his sanity that kind of shock so he just followed Shiro out and now – and now, a good six hours of intense agitation and another two half hours after the club closed, the two policemen were still half hidden in the alley’s darkness next to the nightclub where Pidge swore it would be a good place to find Keith due to a located at the alley’s end.

 

Needless to say, Shiro was apprehensive to leave him alone to face his own demons. Lance's lips twitched in what appeared to be a small but genuine smile to his friend's worry.

 

“I’ll be okay, Shiro.” says squeezing the older man's shoulder to calm him down. "I have to do this alone.” _I need to do this by myself_ was implied in the sentence and the tension of Shiro's shoulders drain from him when he nods.

 

Shiro doesn’t follow him when he steps down the alley, disappearing into the darkness. He focuses on the soft noise of his breathing and the faint noise that his shoes' solo makes on the battered asphalt. His mind is still in the complete silence of thoughts allowing him to hear a faint noise coming from his communicator the deeper he came.

 

_"He's standing at the door, Lance. 'Alone.”_ says Pidge in a low tone. She doesn’t expect him to respond before turning off the comm, leaving him really alone for the first time in the night.

 

A shiver ran through his body, leaving him cold. Even though he had waited so long for this meeting, to have imagined and invented for so many years the most diverse forms and ways of how he could be or what he could _feel_ – happiness for sure and so much love – nothing prepared him for the sudden painful pangs that were his heart or for how his body trembled only with the thought of what would happen.

A strange, poignant feeling crept through his skin with each step and only seconds later Lance realized what it was: _fear_. He was afraid. Afraid of what could happen to them. Afraid to look into those violet eyes for the first time and see disappointment. He’s a trained policeman, did and saw so much that it would leave the others in the slipper and never felt anything but coldness, but _this, Keith,_ it was leaving him wobbly legs as nervous as he felt – like the skinny boy in his first time at the police– something he never imagined would happen when he finally saw him.

 

Lance lifted his blue eyes from his shoes, annoyed at himself for acting like a pre-teen and stopping abruptly. The shoe’s sole making an unpleasant noise on the floor and drawing the man's attention carelessly leaning against the dark wall, ripped jeans at the knee, medium-breasted black boots, and a fuzzy white bolero that hid his thin body and contrasted blatantly with his ebony hair. White smoke escaped through those parted red lips, disappearing into the chill of the night just as the husky voice of the prostitute spoke-crumbling and rebuilding Lance’s world in seconds:

 

"If you're here to have your way with me. I have to say you're late. My job just over an hour. "

 

Lance's heart made a triple jump with that voice, his mind catching every cadence of it, its softness mingling with the deep tone of his vocal cords and the clear manner in which he uttered each letter. _It was just a little deeper than it used to be_.

 

Keith turned to him when he didn’t answer. Throwing what was left of the cigarette on the floor and resting both hands on the thin waist, rings glittered in the door’s bluish light as he took time to gauge who he believed to be a customer. Lance allowed himself to stare, seeing as those thick hair tapped on his shoulder now, black layers evenly distributed across his half-rounded face, fringe falling on dark eyes almost hard to see were it not for the dim light that illuminated them.

 

Lance numbness disappeared the instant Keith opened his mouth, only to be interrupted abruptly by the Cuban rough voice. A simple and unique name “ _Keith_.”

 

Keith hung up. His eyes widened impossibly wide and he took a step toward Lance before returning two back, his back tapping against the wall and thin fingers capping his mouth, his strands vehemently moving in the face of his denial and a sore whisper of _“Impossible, h-he isn’t-”_ escaping from his lips.

 

Motivated by the reaction, Lance took two steps toward him, stopping when the other crawled away from him still shaking his head in despair. The agent raised his hands in the universal sign of 'peace', taking a cautious step toward the other man, stopping when his bright blue eyes could be clearly seen by the man.

 

Keith looked at him deeply, violet eyes glittering with tears and fingers still over his mouth, the stout bolero almost serving as an improvised shield. “Yo-You _can’t_ be him… You can’t be- _can’t be-”_ He repeated like a mantra, closing his eyes tightly and not looking at the Cuban man.

 

Lance exhaled. Heart clenching at the obvious pain in Keith's expression and how much the other didn’t want to believe. He gripped his thin wrists, ignoring the trembling that passed the other, gently pulling them away from his red face and stained with silent tears. “It’s me, Keith… And I came here for you.”

 

And that was enough to break Keith. A painful sob escaped his lips and thick tears streamed down his face, staining the makeup he wore and sticking black hair wires to his pale cheek. Lance just stepped closer, covering the other completely. His long, nimble fingers soothing the skin of his cheeks, cleaning and stroking the pale skin beneath his digits as he whispered assurances and promises.

 

Distantly, Lance knew he was crying too, but all he could notice was how beautiful Keith's eyes were when he opened it to recognize him, to actually _look_ at him with those long wet black lashes – blurred eyeliner – and vibrant and luminous violet eyes looking at him with so much disbelief, vulnerability, and hope that made his throat close with another round of crying.

 

Leaning his forehead and closing his eyes, Lance let himself feel Keith’s essence, the way his fingers clung to his shirt, the way his body trembled with every sob he gave, the way the black wires wrapped around his fingers and the way his trembling heavy breath mingled with his.

For the first time in a long time, Lance felt complete.

 

* * *

  
  


Hunk sniffed, big hands wiping his tear-stained face. "That’s so _beautiful_! They’re so _cute_! Aren’t they Lance? "

 

The blue paladin murmured something incomprehensible through his closed throat. Blue eyes obligatorily focused on the tearful couple hugged before him in vain attempt not to let his eyes wander to the red paladin. An unmistakable relief’s sense seeping into his tense muscles the longer he spent looking at his other self.

 

He felt a heavy look on him before turning to see who was, only to be surprised and a little embarrassed to see Shiro watching him with a knowing look, a tiny smile gracing his thin lips, muscled arms still around another paladin as a kind of protective shield.

 

Pidge snorted at his side, straightening her glasses over her nose in an attempt to hide her red eyes. "It seems like you have his approval to woo his younger brother."

 

Heat rises on Lance's cheeks and he opens his mouth to retort something very ugly that his mother would be pulling at his ear when the harlot's voice caught her attention again.

 

“Y-You have to go.” he says, moving away from the officer's arms. Hands rubbing wet face in the useless attempt to wipe away tears. "If they see you here with me, they'll kill you."

 

“I can't let you–”

 

“You have to!” Keith interrupts abruptly, dark eyes glittering with tears and as intense as obsidian, staring at the other urgently. "I've been a prostitute for years now, Lance. I have a fucking _owner_ and I know very well what will happen if they see you here with me. "

 

"I can handle that, Keith." Lance says in a desperate way. He lowered the collar of his blouse slightly so that the silver chains of the badge were visible in the low light and that was enough to take Keith to a nervous frenzy, hands clinging to the agent's robes eagerly in an attempt to hide the police cordon.

 

_“Are you crazy?”_ he exclaimed in a low tone. "You can’t show that you're a cop here! Do you want to get shot? "

 

"I just want to show you that I'm not afraid." His tone wasn't angry, but strong enough to draw the other's attention to the cold blue eyes. "I'll get you out of here. I'm not leaving without you. "

 

The blue paladin watched as Keith's body trembled as he heard it.

 

“No Lance, please, – _please_ – You can't stay here! They'll kill you if they discover that you are a cop." his eyes were pleading as he stared at the other. Lance watched as his older self's hands touched the thin arms of the other, fingers caressing the skin before pulling it into a hug that Keith readily accepted.

 

“ I'll find a way.” came the determined agent's murmur, clutching the body in his arms once more before releasing him reluctantly. He let his fingers wander quietly over the flushed skin of Keith's cheek for the last time before he moved away. Body merging with the darkness of the alley. “Wait for me, Keith. I'll back to you.” and with that, he disappears into the darkness.

 

The Voltron team only watches the reluctant hope in the other man's eyes disappear three minutes later when two men in suits appear to pick him up, escorting him back into the nightclub and away from the policeman hiding in the shadows.

 

The time around them runs. By now Lance is more than accustomed to vertigo – now not as intense as it was the first time but still a nuisance – and the way his stomach swirled in an almost perfect imitation of the time around them. He could count on his fingers how often he saw his oldest self come back to the club where Keith worked _– Lance counted seven times–,_ one of those times was at the end of the night, when it was an hour before the nightclub was closed, Keith was walking to the bar in his expensive clothes when a man grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the corner, covering him with his body.

 

The blue paladin watched shocked as the man pushed Keith's head roughly to the side, pulling the cardigan downward showing the pale skin of his throat and lowering his head, biting him hard, his hands bellowing down, climbing up and squeezing the other's body.

 

The guy was unlucky. The next minute Macclean was on them, pulling the guy up from Keith and pushing him away with a punch in the jaw, his long-form creating a protective wall between Keith and the guy. Behind him, the boy at the bar came out holding a baseball bat while Lotor's men and Lotor himself came to them. His eyes narrowed dangerously as tiny drops of blood dripped from the bite on Keith's neck.

 

The older Lance cleared the way for the businessman to pass, hands clenched into fists and without taking the cool blue eyes of the aggressor. Lotor crouched in the other man's height, smiling excitedly as he saw him tremble.

 

"You know you must not touch what is mine without permission, Snake. Even more to leave marks on what is clearly mine. "His long fingers traced the small knife he held. Each word with a point of evil annoyance hidden in the courteous smile. "Take care of him."

 

The man screamed as he was dragged away, catching attention from some patrons, but all of Lotor's attention was now on Lance. Watching him inquisitively. “Who are you?”

 

"No one important, Sir." The blue paladin saw the other Keith tremble in the shadows, eyes gazing from one to the other. Lotor nodded to himself, walking quietly to Keith holding him possessively, eyes never leaving the other man. The two men looked at one fiercely.

 

Lotor flashed a smile. "I like you," he concluded seconds later, acting as if Lance had passed some kind of test, eyes still focused on the Cuban man. "You defended a prostitute. And even with all the confusion, no one ever looked at him. "Lotor's hands came down Keith's waist slowly, nails gently scratching the skin of his thighs.

 

Macclean didn’t move or say anything. Lotor let out a convinced snitch, arms closing in the shape of Keith and resting his pointed chin on the other's shoulder, licking a strip of soft skin close to his thin lips. "Tell me your name."

 

“Lance Macclean, Sir.”

 

Lotor nods to himself before pulling away from Keith, squeezing his butt until the skin is set. Blue eyes meeting the violets. "Tell Acxia to fix this blood." His fingers draw the fringe that falls on Keith's eyes as he nods, approaching the lower ear to whisper "and find me in my room later."

 

Keith doesn't dare look at Lance when he leaves, nor does Lance dare to look away from Lotor. The paladins watch in disbelief as Lotor takes the undercover agent into his private room, talking quietly while blatantly displaying all his wealth, four of his henchmen were standing in the room acting disinterested, but the Voltron team and the police themselves knew better.

 

However, even knowing about the danger not removed the surprise they felt when Lotor asked the other man to work for him as Keith's security, where Macclean promptly accepted after a second of the unexpected request. _"You have no idea how hard it is to find someone who does not want to lay hands on you without my knowledge. Since you clearly have not shown anything, I trust it in your hands.”_

 

Lance feels relief to caress his soul when his other self leaves the room with a small smile on his face and time takes them away from there.

 

* * *

 

Lance comes back the next day on the night they called _Holiday_. After reviewing everything that had happened to his team and all Lotor's demands of _'Don't let him out of your sight. If he is to please customers, stand at his door, if anyone tries to touch him without my knowledge, without paying or being on the appointed day, teach them a lesson."_ Sincerely, Lance was more than happy about it.

 

Finding Keith standing still on the wall as a man ran his hand down his leg, clenching his muscles tightly until his pale skin turned red. Keith simply turned his face to the side, head against the wall and eyes not seeing anything, as if he had locked himself in some place in his mind while the man touched him.

 

"No marks," he says in an empty voice as the man licks the delicate skin around his neck, making it irritated. The guy just grunts something incoherently without acknowledging it.

 

Lance closes his hand in fists and approaches. He knows the exact moment when Keith sees him in the crowd, for his once empty eyes fill with _something_ when they find his, teeth sunk in the lower lip with discomfort while the guy ignores his warnings. The Cuban pulls the man off Keith with an angry tug.

 

"He said no marks," he repeats coldly to the other. The guy just stares at him for a few moments before cursing. Lance continues to stare down the path the man took before turning to Keith, messy hair around his flushed face and vibrant eyes. The smaller man straightened the fine robe over his bare shoulders.

 

“You can't save me forever.”  Keith says with conviction. Lance watches him for a few whole seconds, reverently absorbing the strong man before him.

 

“ I can try.” an odd little smile shines on Keith's face before disappearing as suddenly as it appeared. Lotor must have told him that Lance was his new security if the soft way he was around him explained something. Straightening the column, the prostitute just walks among the others to get another client.

 

* * *

 

Lance knew that it wouldn't be simple to just watch Keith run around luring rich customers to complete his job. But now, standing outside one of the luxurious bedrooms on the second floor, listening to the disgusting groans of another man, the slaps sound on skins and slaps of skin against skin… Lance wondered why he couldn't just get his gun and shoot the bastard in the bedroom.

 

It's _hard_ to just stand there listening to the nicknames and filthy compliments that the imbecile said to Keith, _Keith_ –who blushed like a madman every time Lance gave him a compliment, called him cute or kissed his cheeks. _Keith_ who always asked to stop him when he kisses got too hot. The same Keith who now had sex with another man on the other side of the wall he was leaning against.

 

The bedroom door opened like a dream being made for him, especially when the old rich man came out straightening his tie and the few hairs on his head. He looked over his shoulder at the bedroom, a nasty smile on his face. "Let's do it again, Kitty."

 

Lance burned his eyes on the man's back, imagining himself firing at him before entering the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Keith was sitting on the bed, his hair disheveled, his lips parted and swollen, the skin on his neck a few reddened areas, his torso completely naked and flushed, the path down his belly to his navel stained with cum until he disappeared into the thin cover that he wore to cover his crotch, but nothing to cover the legs and colored socks he wore.

 

The policeman walked to the bathroom that was there, taking a cloth and wetting it, giving Keith time to rearrange himself before returning to the room. He didn't say anything about the socks as he handed the towel over to the other. But Keith noticed it anyway. He gave a disparaging smile, raising the thin robe around his shoulders.

 

"He likes when I wear women's clothes." He pointed to a short pink dress thrown on the floor. "He thinks it's sexy when I'm an obedient little girl." Keith snorted, tossing his hair back and wiping the skin off his cheek with anger, rising from the bed and turning his back to him. "He thinks I should always use things like that ... like I don't do it all day long."

 

Lance let out a slow sigh, taking a few slow steps to the other man and taking the cloth from his trembling hands. He calmly turned him so they were face to face and gently began to wipe Keith's battered skin. Keith stammered out, closing his eyes and turning his face away from Lance as he cleaned it. The policeman pushed the robber away peacefully, passing the white cloth lovingly across his pale skin before him, feeling intense anger for those who dared to hurt that skin and feeling fiercely protective of the man before him.

 

Keith's body quivered as Lance crouched to wipe his belly, ignoring his nakedness in order to make the other as clean as possible, wiping the inside of his thighs. He was so focused on it that he almost missed Keith's depressing laughter. The agent looked up, seeing how those violet orbs were covered with odious tears, tears that ran down his cheeks and dripped from his chin to his hands.

 

“L-Look at this.” Keith laughed, his body shaking uncontrollably. "Look at how we are now. I'm _naked_ in front of you and I'm not even _ashamed_. I-It was for me to be embarrassed when you saw me like this for the first time b-but instead I'm a fucking dirty mess for fucking another man!" Now tears were flowing uncontrollably down his face. "I-it was supposed to be different…”

 

Lance stood up, hands rising to calm the other, but that only made him move farther away. “Keith”

 

“I-It’s not for us to be here.” He says desperately, fingers clawing at his arms. "It was for us to be at home, it’s ... it was for, for us to be eating bad pizza a-and telling stupid things and, and spending the days as we always did.” his voice dies at the end of the sentence and he cringes when Lance holds his arms, fleeing of his blue eyes. "And _when I was ready I would tell you…”_

 

“I know you'd say. "Lance feels his voice hitch with that, his body receiving an electric shock as Keith looks abruptly at him, with anger and aversion deeply rooted in his indigo eyes.

 

"But instead I became a _prostitute_." He spits the word in disgust. "I lost my virginity to a man who doesn't even know the name. I sleep with anyone who gives me money and I do everything they ask me. I'm just a toy.” He looks bleakly at Lance. "I'm so dirty Lance." says in a broken whisper. "I'm so, _so_ filthy. You shouldn't be touching me, I'm going to mess you up. "

 

Lance's fingers tighten in Keith's arms. “I don't care, Keith.” He says powerfully, shaking the other so that he understood. "I don't care how many men you slept or what you became. I have no interest in it... but on you, Keith.”

 

They look at each other gently, unspoken words floating around them. Lance lets his thumbs flatten Keith's cheekbones with reverence. "I have an interest in the person who you are.”

 

Their faces are close, _so close_. Lance could close the distance between them, but he knew it wasn't the time. He knew that even with the past like theirs, bringing things up at that moment would result in bad things in the future, _the things would get more complicated._ He couldn't promise that he would be able to hold on the next time they touched Keith if they kissed now, and _this_ was something he couldn't do if they weren't dead before they even got close to escaping.

 

Instead, he allows himself to touch their foreheads, looking deeply into the man he has been in love with for years, the one he would run the world to find no matter what it cost. He closed his eyes and felt Keith's cold fingers touch his wrists like butterflies' wings, felt his breath meet his lips and his nose meet his gently. Keith sniffed softly.

 

“Y-You s-should go.”

 

Nodding to himself, he walks away calmly, glaring at Keith for a moment. Absorbing how handsome he was. Letting himself get carried away by one of his desires, he allows himself to press his lips on the small man's sweaty forehead, his nose buried in the black fringes for a few seconds before moving away. Keith doesn't stop him from leaving the room.

 

* * *

  
  


The other days don't get easier. Each day is a fight that the cop has to deal with himself to not attack anyone who looks crooked at Keith. As the weeks go by, Lotor becomes increasingly confident that Lance will not betray him and invites him to closed meetings –where he discusses the distribution of drugs in countries other than trafficking in arms and people. At the end of each meeting, Lance is keen to tell every detail to his staff and Blade staff.

 

Lance walks quietly through the nightclub. Eyes watching everything like a lion watching prey. He looks at the stage where Keith is inside a glass container, resting his hands on the windowpane and leaning his forehead there, purple eyes glittering with the golden lights, making the white diamond crown on his head vibrate with life. A leather harness studded with tiny stones clung to his chest in a set with the thick black panties he wore under pantyhose. He turned his back on the audience, tilting the top down so that his ass swayed in the air, where it clearly read _“Yes, Daddy?”_

 

For some reason, Lance found himself imagining Keith doing this just a way to get everyone to _fuck off_. His eyes slid off the prostitute and they focused on Lotor, seeing everything from his private room, lips moving as he spoke to a rich man at his side. _A man who was part of the Blade, his name was Thace_.

 

Half an hour before the club closes, Lance is asked to appear in the businessman's room. With neutral expression, he watches while Lotor says he will have to go on a business trip and he'll be away for four days.

 

"Take my Kitten to the apartment," he says tightening his tie with arrogance, looking at Lance through the reflection in the mirror. "I don't want anyone in touch with him until I get back. Understood?"

 

“Yes, Sir.”

 

Lotor brushes the hair away from the face. "Call him here. I want to say goodbye to him properly. "

 

And now Lance stood still, two days later, in the middle of the room that would serve as his for two more days. He looks at things with disinterest before walking into the room with large windows. Keith was leaning against it, his form almost fading from the black clouds of the sky. They didn't talk for fear of the place having cameras but everyday Lance was inclined to speak since his searches for staplers gave no results.

 

He unnecessarily pricks the wall's polished surface, wanting to break the silence but not knowing how. Keith does it for him. "You know, as much as I hate Lotor, I always hated him more when he traveled."

 

Lance sighs, dragging his toes across the silky carpet that covers the floor. Stopping next to Keith to observe the weather too.

 

"I always hated it because he always left someone to look at me." Keith bites his lower lip hard. " _They always_ found a way to touch me." He looks at Lance, a smile almost visible on his lips.” So when you showed up that day and helped me with that man, and you _never_ looked at me or asked for _anything_ in return, it's enough for Lotor to want to trust you..."

 

Keith's eyes flashed with emotion as he finished the sentence. " _I trust you._ I always did. Even when I was taken, I-I hoped that I might see you again, and now you are here. "

 

Lance inhales sharply. Barriers falling around him, ignoring all the warnings he put to himself and approaching the other. _Needing desperately to touch_. "I've been looking for you for so long, Keith.” he says in a voice filled with emotion, gripping the Korean's face and pulling him close until his forehead touches his forehead. "I've been looking for you for years and I'd spend my whole life looking until I found you."

 

He sniffled as Keith let out a watery laugh. "All my life if I had to."

 

Tears ran down his cheeks gently. A shy smile that Lance hadn't seen for a long time appeared on Keith's face, accompanied by flushed cheeks. Keith's thumb traced the line of his jaw up to his lips with a fondness that made Lance's chest hurt. "You're a _moron_ Lance."

 

Hearing that simple phrase along with the set of an embarrassed smile and flushed cheeks was enough to break Lance, taking him back in times where it was just them and the nights of kisses, piles of books and endless trials.

 

He didn't think as he moved his face so that his lips touched Keith's softly, almost nothing. But it was enough to bring back that fire that never went out, making his veins buzz with life and skin getting electric. Keith gasped at his lips, pressing himself into him until all they both felt was only his lips moving against each other and tongues trying to feel everything else offered.

 

Lance offered his life, and Keith gave him confidence, tied firmly with his body and soul and years of suffering and abuse. The kiss was a kiss of longing, of hurts and wounds that had been open for a long time and which only now had the capacity to heal.

 

That night, they gave themselves permission to be happy. To take what was theirs but which had been taken by others. Lance let himself knows Keith's body, remembering the marks he knew about the story and new ones that he would do anything to be nothing but past bad memories. He was ecstatic when Keith surrendered in his arms with so much love and hope that he would find himself invalid if he didn't offer the same in return.

 

His lips met every inch of Keith's body. And Keith's lips knew the various ways of saying Lance's name. When Lance finally got into him, it's as if everything they went through was worth it. When their bodies moved together it's as if the meaning of love was really something possible and not merely imaginary.

 

If Keith wept during those moments, Lance wiped them with kisses. If Lance ever rested his face on the other's neck to try not to cry too, Keith's hands wrapped around his face and pulled him into a slow, passionate kiss.

 

Even when it was over, they remained entangled in each other, with fleeting touches and timid smiles filling all night.

 

* * *

 

Seated in the white armchair, Keith gently smoothed the soft fabric of his coat, finger rolling over the synthetic-blue ones. The Paladins watched Lotor walk furiously from side to side before sitting heavily in front of Keith, but without paying attention to him.

 

"How come the fuck!" The shout surprises the prostitute, making him jump in the chair. Lotor squeezes the phone tightly. "How the fuck did that happen?"

 

The blue paladin observes how Keith pretends not to pay attention in the conversation and the Cuban boy almost feels like to congratulate him for the acting.

 

"There's no way to sell them, you fucker! We have to put an end to them.” Keith's eyes widen and he looks at his coat so he'll not get caught snooping. "You know what to do, Renner."

 

The phrase carries a completion degree so intense that even Lance feels his body shiver. He watches as Lotor grabs Keith's chin and pulls him to his feet.

 

"Don't tell anyone what you've heard here. Understood?” Keith nods then Lotor kisses him fiercely before releasing him. “I'll solve a problem. Don't leave here.”

 

"I doubt he'll be quiet," Pidge replies with conviction. Five minutes later they are proven right when Keith leaves the office and practically runs to Lance, almost falling in his way

 

“Lance!” his fingers clutching the officer's clothing urgently.

 

“Keith, wh-”

 

"He will kill them! The immigrants, Lotor and his staff are going to kill them!” His eyes glow with fury barely restrained. "You have to save them. Please, Lance, you have to. "

 

“Okay. Okay. Calm down.” Maclean responds seriously, dragging him aside so they do not get caught in anyone's sight. "I'll figure it out, but you have to get back to the hotel. Stay safe.”

 

Keith nods his head. "Just help them, Lance.” He murmurs. Touching the communicator behind his ear, Lance calls for his team, giving Keith a quick kiss on the forehead before leaving.

 

Time turns and turns and Lance takes fright at the sound of shots. Immediately he bends down, Hunk and Pidge at his side. "Holy shit, this looks so real."

 

"Language Lance." Shiro returns immediately. Lance looks at him in disbelief.

 

"Seriously? Even in a situation like this? "

 

"The shots are not going to catch us," Keith says looking over the crates at the other Lance who was leaning against an iron pillar.

 

"It may be, buddy, but I sure don't want to test it," Hunk says.

 

“Takashi!” Macclean screams, watching the man throw a grenade and explode three men. "Hunk took them out!"

 

“Great.”

 

_“Guys, we have a problem.”_ Pidge's voice says with apprehension. _“Someone dumped confidential information about Lotor's nightclub. Looks like one of the prostitutes got contact with someone from the outside. "_

 

“Shit.” Macclean turns his face away as a shot grabs the wall next to him.

 

_ “Lotor is going there. Surely he'll try to escape. So we need to act now.” _

 

“The Blades?”

 

_ “On their way." _

 

“Roger Pidge. We're going.” says the other Shiro. He and Lance nod to each other before running to the nearest exit under a shot's shower. The Voltron team runs right behind them so they don't lose sight them, but it turns out that time has taken them back, causing them to complain when they're taken suddenly to another place

 

“Where are they?” Hunk asked looking from side to side, where people gathered outside the nightclub. There were police cars all over the place, some simple traffickers working for Lotor were now handcuffed near the car's wheels in a big and disorderly line. Prostitutes walked side to side with blurred makeup, some of them bleeding.

 

Lance glanced around with a scowl. "Where's Keith?"

 

Everyone looked at him strangely. "Hmm, I'm here?" Says the red paladin without understanding

 

“Not you, your other self. He should be here.” he says, raising his hands up to emphasize his point. "Oh not be that ..." he looks up, seeing two shapes on the nightclub terrace. "Holy shit," he runs.

 

He doesn't hear the other paladins calling him. He just keeps running, following his instincts until they arrive at a heavy metal door clearly forbidden to employees and he pushes it, even though all he did was cross it– just in time to see Lotor press the gun’s barrel in Keith’s temple.

 

“I honestly thought I could trust you.” says Lotor's viscous voice, vibrant eyes of anger at the policeman standing in front of him, pointing the gun at him. "This son of a bitch helped you? Hm?” Long fingers grip hard on the thick strands and pull him back without pain, causing the other to sigh.

 

Macclean pressed the gun to his fingers, almost pulling the trigger when Lotor pressed his face to Keith's neck and licked the skin to his red face, biting his round cheek.

 

“Let him go or I'll shoot you, Lotor.”

 

Lotor let out a manic laugh, walking back and pulling Keith along, stopping to put one of his feet on the edge of the building.

 

“We're in names now, aren't we, _cop_?” Keith let out a sore groan as his neck pulled back and Lotor smiled at him. "Look at this ... a real slut." The gun barrel runs through Keith's face as Lotor focuses on Lance. "Have you ever fucked him? Because otherwise, you're missing out on great fun. Have you heard him moan? "

 

Macclean inflates his cheeks. Murderous blue eyes on the other man. He squeezes the handle of the weapon, finger itching the trigger while looking at the other's forehead.

 

“ _Ah_ , the noises he makes. Aren't you, baby? "He pushes the barrel into Keith's mouth whose eyes twinkle with unshed tears. "You love being fucked so bad you can't get out of bed, do you?" Keith sobs, trying to push his face away, but Lotor pulls him. "No, not Kitty. Have I not taught you obedience? "

 

“For the last time, Lotor.” Maclean repeats in a deadly tone. "Let him go.”

 

“You're going to have to shoot, _Lance_. Let's see if you're a good shooter.”

 

He looks at Keith with pleading eyes, begging to trust him when he says it in good tune. "Remember many years ago when I tried to teach dancing, Keith?" Lotor just stares blankly as Keith nods. "Remember what I asked you _not_ to do?” Understanding reached the other as Lotor pulled him closer.

 

“What the fuck are you talking about, Maclean?”

 

Lance does not look at him when he asks with kindness just kept for Keith. "Do that for me."

 

That's all it takes for Keith to stomp on Lotor's foot and elbow his ribs, throwing himself on the ground the moment the cop shoots three times in a row at the unfortunate's chest, propelling him into free fall.

 

The paladins watch relieved Lance run to the man squatting on the floor and pulling him into a bone-crushing embrace. Burying his face in the other's dirty hair and pulling him impossibly close.

 

“I have you now, Keith.” He whispers as the shorter man's first sobs begin to swell. "We're together now"

 

Tears of achievement escape the agent's eyes, but he does nothing to clean it, just says in a brighter, more relieved tone. "It's over."

 

With morbid curiosity, the blue, red, and green paladins approach the building's edge, watching the body lying down in a pool of blood. The air around them begins to fade slowly.

 

“A very fair ending,” says Pidge without pity. No one corrects them while they are taken elsewhere.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to put here the chapter's songs:
> 
> Beast - Mia Martina feat. Waka Flocka  
> Rihanna - Pour it Up  
> Earned it - The Weeknd  
> Call Out my Name - The Weeknd
> 
> <3<3<3
> 
> (I like comments guys. I need to know what do you think!! this helps me a lot (*3*))

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter wasn't, but the next chapters may be huge.  
> Hope you liked it~


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